Town climb back to 4th

This was our first visit to the impressive DCS Stadium, although there is urgent work going on to install the additional seating required to meet the league standards, with the team now perilously close to a relegation spot, but there was little that was noteworthy in a turgid opening spell until Stefan Brown broke the deadlock just before half-time to set us on the way to a deserved, and very welcome victory, which lifted us into 4th. place in an ever-changing league table.
A couple of free-kicks were off target as the home side used long-ball tactics, but James Clark’s kick was easily saved by Andy Kemp, before the Hungerford striker shot well wide from another free-kick. The rather uneven surface made ball control difficult for both sides but with halftime approaching, Kemp managed to block Mark Draycott;s shot, but the ball only ran to Stefan Brown who finished neatly after 43 minutes to give us the lead.
Our defence was rock-solid and gave the Stratford forwards few chances after the interval, whilst Brown was unable to control a long ball in a strong attack and Garn Preen’s corner was scrambled away.
Although we were fairly comfortable, a single goal lead was not enough, but the game was made safe with 20 minutes to go when Preen was fouled near the corner flag and his kick was headed powerfully in by James Rusby to double our lead. Goalkeeper Kemp took a risk when he tried to dribble the ball out of his own penalty area and almost lost it to Brown, but although we won four corners in succession we were unable to add to our lead and had to be content with thw margin of victory and the very welcome points.
Team; Strudley,Horgan, Tyler, Rusby, Day,Rees, Clark,Herring(Jones),Brown(Goodger), Draycott, Preen. Subs;O’Brien, Jarvis, John.