Spirits lifted as we beat Poole Town

Poole Town 1 Lindsay
Hungerford Town 2 Hopper, Soares

Attendance: 453

However you judge this result, only our second ever win at Poole and first victory since 2014, this was a magnificent effort by newly-appointed managers Ian Herring and Jon Boardman and the players who fought so hard to achieve it.

It is far too early to read much into the league table, but the win lifted us out of the relegation zone and towards the middle of the table and gave everyone a lift for the challenging games to come. Also very pleasing was the good number of fans who braved the horrendous Bank Holiday traffic to support the team and gathered round at the end to warmly applaud the players as they left the field. We started well and soon put the strangely lethargic Dolphins under pressure before taking the lead after only 15 minutes, Luke Hopper finishing from close range after the Poole goalkeeper failed to hold a shot from Stefan Brown. A free-kick from Ian Herring caught a team-mate offside after Callum Willmoth had been fouled and Hopper, a lucky talisman for Hungerford when playing Poole having scored against them in 2012 and 2013, was just unable to control the ball when a long pass towards him threatened danger. He was again unlucky when he flicked the top of the bar with a dangerous shot.

Early in the second half Lewis Ward came out well to cut out a dangerous through ball before our defence was caught napping for the only time in the game when Lewis Lindsay picked up a loose ball to level the scores just five minutes into the second half with a scuffed shot that deceived Ward. We were not however dismayed by this set-back and although Ward had to race off his line to stop Luke Burbidge, Louise Soares broke through a couple of tackles and fired home a great goal from outside the penalty area on 62 minutes to regain a lead we never really looked like losing, even when the referee indicated 6 minutes of injury time. Several enforced changes through injury meant that our defence had a somewhat makeshift look towards the end of the game but the final whistle heralded a joyful reception from our supporters and a much needed three points.

Team; Lewis Ward, Rhys Tyler, Paul Stonehouse, Ian Herring, Matt Partridge (Nicholas Bignall), Callum Willmoth, Stefane Ngamvoulou, Scott Rees (James Clark), Stefan Brown (Warren Bentley), Louie Soares - Unused subs: Jon Boardman, Tom Meechan