Another excellent win on the road

We followed up the excellent win at Chesham with an even better performance as the players shrugged off the effects of the long journey to the southern fringes of Birmingham to record a well-deserved win at Redditch which kept us in a challenging position in 7th. place, but with now only 3 points between 2nd. and 8th. place the league is in a delicately balanced position and a run of good or poor results would dramatically affect the situation. The visit of Cirencester on Saturday is therefore yet another vital game for they are lying second , 3 points above us, but having played a game more.
With Charlie Mpi unfit, James Clark led the attack and the game opened in a lively fashion, Redditch having tricky and speedy forwards, but they fell into the trap of playing long balls forward, which were easily gobbled up by a solid Hungerford defence. We took the lead after only 10 minutes when Dean Stow won a corner which was taken by James Pilling and Mark Draycott got on the end of the cross to beat Sam Hornby in the Redditch goal. Liam Spink shot wide for the home side, but we should have increased the lead when Clark broke through the middle but instead of shooting, he opted to pass to Lee Smith who was offside.
Our defence looked particularly solid and Paul Strudley was rarely tested as we continued to have the better of the play, Lee Smith making it 2-0 after 36 minutes with a terrific cross-shot into the roof of the net, but the margin was still by no means a winning one as the home side still looked capable of getting something from the game through their tricky attack. Clark had a lengthy spell of treatment but he looked to have a chance only for Hornby to race well outside his area and head the ball away. Redditch used all three subs, but failed to really trouble our defence as the minutes ticked away, and despite 5 minutes of injury time we were never in danger and deserved the points.
Team; Strudley, Rusby, Horgan, Boardman, Day, Pilling, Stow ,Collins, CLark (Goodger), Draycott, Smith. Subs; O’Brien, Munday, Rees, Wilkinson