Hungerford bounce back after opening-day disaster

HUNGERFORD Town bounced back from a nightmare start to get their Southern League campaign up and running on Tuesday night.

Town romped to a 5-2 win over Gosport Borough at Bulpit Lane, just three days after crashing 4-1 at Chertsey Town in their Premier South opener.

Goals from skipper Louis McGrory, Ellis Watts, Matt Berry-Hargreaves, James Dobson and Zidan Akers sealed an impressive victory and put the Crusaders back on track.

It was a far cry from Saturday when Town produced a lethargic display at newly-promoted Chertsey.

Crusaders have enjoyed a productive pre-season and built a squad that Robinson believes is good enough to reclaim their place in National League South.

But they failed to get going in Surrey and manager Danny Robinson offered no excuses for their 4-1 defeat.

He said: “We conceded after 30 seconds and that put us on the back foot and we never recovered.

“We had a goal chalked off and to be fair Chertsey, while we were very poor, they were very good.

“It was not the best day in my time at Hungerford.”

Robinson was banned from the touchline for the game following a red card against Hendon last season.

Berry-Hargreaves was also out suspended, while top scorer Conor McDonagh was injured and Brad Hooper andJoe Shepherd were unavailable.

Robinson said: “We were without four influential players, but I’m not using that as an excuse as that’s what you build a squad for.

“The squad we have is strong and it will compete this season.

“We just had a bad day at the office – I want to apologise to all those who travelled.”

Hungerford will be at full strength – apart from McDonagh – for Saturday’s home game against Taunton Town.