Crusaders denied by stoppage time equaliser

Chelmsford City 3 Hungerford Town 3

A 94th minute goal denied Hungerford all three points on their first visit to Chelmsford.

The home side were 3-1 down 10 minutes into the second half but clawed one back and laboured to equalise before Shaun Jeffers’ second goal of the match earned the hosts a point.

It was City who went ahead after 18 minutes when Anthony Church headed home Robbie Willmott’s corner, but Hungerford were helped in to an interval lead by Chelmsford goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons.

They won a free kick 10 minutes before the break and Louis Soares’ shot was spilled by the goalkeeper for Ian Herring to snap up the rebound.

The goalkeeper was again caught out seconds before the half-time whistle when he misjudged and missed a long clearance and handed Nat Jarvis the easiest of goals.

And 10 minutes after the re-start, he could only get a touch to Nicholas Bignall’s shot that gave Hungerford a 3-1 advantage.

Jeffers pounced in the box to cut the gap two minutes later, but Hungerford withstood pressure and were seconds away from taking all three points when Jeffers pounced in a goalmouth melee to grab a share of the points.

The result took Hungerford up to eighth in the table before they go into Saturday’s re-arranged game at Oxford City and next Monday night’s home game with Whitehawk.

Chelmsford City: Fitzsimons; Miller, Bush, Haines, Blanchett Reid 69); Willmott, Church, Porter (Graham 60), Rees; Jeffers, Buchanan.

Hungerford Town: Legg; Rees, Jones, Day (Boardman 76), Tyler’ Clark, Herring, L. Williams, Soares; Jarvis, Bignall (M. Williams 81. Subs: Preen, O’Brien, Rusby.