The plan for Hungerford playing their first season in Southern League football was to find there feet and avoid relegation although this was achieved many around the club will be disappointed with some of the results and low league position achieved in their first year.

Alan Clarke saw many players come and go from his team this year and in my opinion this was one of the reasons for their inconsistency. At the start of the season Clarke had managed to attract players such as Neville Roach, Steve Cook, Richard Witt, Tom Melledew Yashwa Romeo & Ricky Allaway to the team and they looked impressive starting with a good win pre-season over Woodford United and then made a great account for themselves in a 3-0 loss to Swindon Town.

After a successful pre-season the first league game came at home against newly promoted VT FC and Hungerford found it difficult to adapt to the speed of play, VT with early pressure putting Swindon Town loan signing Mark Scott under lots of pressure in goal. VT managed victory after a thunderous 30 yard drive midway through the second half gave Scott no chance, Hungerford were also unfortunate to lose new signing Ricky Allaway to a knee injury which would keep him out for the majority of the season.

The next game was totally different, after starting slowly again The Crusaders played well as a unit and put four past AFC Hayes, Cook scoring a brace and a goal a piece from Bradley Clarke and Yashwa Romeo.

The inconsistency then started with a couple more losses to Cirencester Town and AFC Totton in the league and then with a few good cup performances seeing us lose out eventually in the last qualifying round of the FA Cup to an impressive Dorchester Town and losing out in the FA Trophy Third round qualifier to Boreham Wood. Paulton Rovers did go onto make the first Round proper of the FA cup and entertained League one Champions Norwich City at home seeing their game televised but losing out 7-0 but never the less a great day and accomplishment for any club at this level.

The Berks & Bucks cup saw us face our local rivals Thatcham Town with Thatcham victorious, they then went on to beat us twice more in identical scorelines of 2-1 in the league giving them the local bragging rights.

Players started to leave the club for various reasons, Cook went back Swindon Supermarine when the offer of more money was too good to turn down and Alan Clarke's season started to deteriorate before him.

After beating Andover 4-2 and Uxbridge 1-0 we went four games without scoring and 8 games without a win until we demolished Andover again this time 4-0 in February 2010. The win was short lived though when Bedfont Green stopped us in our tracks winning 3-2, we then only managed 4 points in our next 8 games until we faced bottom of the league Bracknell Town who at this stage had only one win to their names, although not a walk over we came away with three good points winning 2-0. Our next Opponents Gosport snatched victory away from us equalising with minutes to go but another point was good at this stage of the season, we then saw of Abingdon United 4-1 on a Tuesday evening before losing to Yate Town on the Saturday.

This trend was to go on until the end of the season seeing us win one then lose a couple and although disappointing the team were never really outplayed and lost so many games only to a single goal, perhaps a goalscorer is needed to change things for next season.

There were some other good points to the season, Hungerford Reserves re-formed and had a tremendous season seeing them win their league by 12 points and make the League Cup final against holders Highworth Town to be played on the 5th May. Shaun Thorp managed another 36 goals to his name but was pipped to the league top goalscorer award by Finchampsteads Luke Frostick. Former FA Vase winner Shaun Dyke has been a great addition to the squad with him being the supplier to so many of the goals for the team but with his constant knee injury has he got another season in him? Cook & Trumper managed to attract local players to the club and they have supported the club by socialising in the club house after games and bringing glory back to club with the League Title. Cook also introduced Callum Willmoth and Russell Benham to the first team and between them played there fair share of first team games and impressed to those watching.

The season is now over all bar the Final next Wednesday and looking back over the campaign we gave it a pretty good go in all departments.

Moving on to next season the club are working hard on a new infrastructure which will need tweaking slightly to get it perfect but should see more stability in keeping players and having regular training sessions which are essential if the club are to progress.

The Reserves will be facing a tougher test next year when they take promotion into the Hellenic Division one east league and face the likes of Newbury Town, the club hope to be able to attract the best local players around by moving up to a more competitive standard of football. So make sure you come and support both teams next year.

On behalf of the club I would like to thank all of our supporters and sponsors who have helped tremendously all season without you there would not be a club.

We hope all of you enjoyed the season and come back again for our next chapter, a 125 years of Hungerford Town Football Club.