It took two Eastbourne penalties to sink the Crusaders

This was a difficult defeat to take, and most of the talk after the game was about the referees performance, having sent off Diak John early on and awarding the visitors two penalties.

The problems started after only 5 minutes when the ball was driven fiercely into a crowd of defenders, straight at Diak John, it appeared from the stand, but the referee apparently saw enough to award the Borough a penalty and harshly send off the Hungerford defender. Although Lewis Ward got down brilliantly to save the Lloyd Dawes penalty, we were forced to play 85 minutes a man down and, not surprisingly, the visitors had much more of the ball, but we defended well and Ward was in great form, commanding the goal area and handling everything with supreme confidence.

We did have chances when we counter-attacked, Louie Soares went close, and we had another clear-cut chance when Soares squared the ball to the unmarked James Clark, who shot hurriedly high and wide.

The second half continued with the visitors having the lions share of the play, but we held on and when the Borough did break through, Ward was in terrific form. There was another controversial incident when Gareth Thomas was knocked out in a collision with an opponent, but play went on with the Hungerford defender lying on the ground, until the pleas of his team-mates and the shouts of the fans drew the referees attention to the problem and he stopped play to allow the physio to treat the stricken player.

Alex Wall, came on for the final 20 minutes and looked a good signing, although he is not match-fit, he went close scoring with a flicked attempt only for the referee to have blown for an earlier foul on Herring.

There was more to come, just as it began to look as if our valiant defence had earned a point , the visitors were awarded another penalty, and this time Matt Drage gave Ward no chance from the spot and our valiant rear-guard action went unrewarded.

Team; Lewis Ward, Rhys Tyler, Diak John, Paul Stonehouse, Gareth Thomas, James Rusby, James Clark(Ian Herring), Jordan Simpson, Stefan Brown, Nicholas Bignall(Alex Wall), Louie Soares(Richie Whittingham). Subs;Matt Partridge, Marcus Beauchamp,