A Conor McDonagh hat trick was still not enough

The Crusaders found themselves on the third plastic pitch in as many weeks and like in the previous two weeks were held by their hosts. Jack Wright & Rhys Tyler made returns to the team but the Crusaders were still without Matt Berry-Hargreaves and Adulai Sambu

It was a strong start from the visitors and they found themselves 1-0 up in the first ten minutes. Elis Watts finding himself free down the wing cut a ball back into the box that Conor McDonagh control span and fired into the net.

This fired the home side into life and James Dobson saw a header glance off the outside of Hungerford’s post a couple of minutes later. Midway through the half Fabio Lopes got upended in the box and Hungerford were awarded a penalty. McDonagh was in no mood to miss chances and despatched the spot kick past Rowley

Finding themselves two down the home side found inspiration and it was only a few minutes after the penalty Ashley Yerwood capitalised on a Hungerford defensive error to fire into the bottom corner of the net to pull one back.

It was now end to end stuff and in the 35th minute Babs Jarra powerfully headered a Sam De St Croix corner onto the post. Five minutes later Lopes was again taken out in the box probably more so than the first incident but this time the referee waved protests away.

In added time Beaconsfield equalised ex Hungerford player Zidane Akers curling a shot past Ryan Clarke to end a very entertaining half.

The second half was not as open as the first but Hungerford retook the lead on the hour from McDonagh completing his hat trick. Picking up the ball around 30 yards out he powered a shot into the top left hand corner, Rowley getting a hand to it but it was too powerful to stop. A fabulous was to gain his 23rd of the season.

After that goal there was a lot of pressure from the home side but Hungerford were keeping them at bay fairly comfortably only a speculative effort from Dobson pushed over the bar by Clarke saw any real threat. When the board went up on 90 minutes for 8 minutes of injury time there was something of disbelief from everyone in the ground as it had been a free-flowing half with no physio’s on the pitch and only 5 changes.

There was a feeling that something was going to happen in all the added time and sadly for Hungerford it did when in the 6th minute of it Sam Togwell headed in a corner for the equaliser. A draw possibly a fair reflection on the game but Hungerford will feel hard done by the mysterious added time, something Danny Robinson picked up a post-game yellow for questioning.

Team : Clarke, Tyler, Medford-Smith, Wright, Jarra, Hooper, Shepherd (Stanley), De St Croix (Alexander), Watts, McDonagh, Lopes (Ladapo).
Subs Not used : Evans, Paget