Crusaders vow to fight on

Poole Town 1 Hungerford Town 1

HUNGERFORD manager Bobby Wilkinson has vowed that his squad will not give up on its promotion dream until the last ball is kicked this season.

Tuesday night’s draw at Poole leaves the Dorset side with a seven point cushion as they occupy the final play-off spot, and with only five games to play, it will take a momental effort from Crusaders and some help from others, to wipe oiut that gap.

“But the players are up for it and we’ve set the task of winning five out of five. We know it’s a big task, but we’ll give it our best, as we always do, and we won’t give up on that chance until it’s mathematically impossible.”

Hungerford produced one of their best performances at Poole to take a point, after coming from behind when Jon Boardman was booked for a foul on Luke Roberts that gave Steve Devlin the chance to put Poole ahead from the penalty spot after 25 minutes.

Skipper Matt Day headed home Alan O’Brien’s cross to level the scores 10 minutes later as Hungerford stretched the solid Poole defence without making the decisive breakthrough, and and despite pitching four strikers into the mix in the final quarter, they could not shake The Dolphins, who had late chances of their own through Roberts and Luke Burbidge that were kept out by goalkeeper Lewis Ward.

Poole Town: Hutcings; Tallack (Moore 60), Whisken, Spetch, Smeeton; Burbidge, Devlin, Pettefer, Baggie; Brooks, Roberts. Subs: Cooper, T. Rees, Granger, Gillespie.

Hungerford Town: Lewis; Rees, Day, Boardman, Tyler; Clark (Goodger 79), Herring, Williams, O’Brien (Meechan 79); Jarvis, Bentley. Subs: Soares, Jones, Thomas.

Referee: Savvas Yianni (Weston-Super-Mare). Attendance: 659.