Hungerford slip to derby day defeat at Chippenham

Danny Robinson’s Hungerford Town side made the short trip west on the A4 to local rivals Chippenham Town but returned home pointless after the hosts snatched a 1-0 win thanks to a second half goal from Luke Russe.

The Crusaders had the better of the opening exchanges at Hardenhuish Park and went within a hair’s breadth of taking the lead inside five minutes when Adam Liddle’s sweeping shot cannoned off the crossbar and Jerry Gyebi proved unable to turn home the rebound.

Chippenham tested Jed Ward for the first time 15 minutes in as former Swindon man Jordan Young shot from outside the box and the Bluebirds went close again 10 minutes later when Seb Palmer-Houlden shot wide after a fluent move.

Both James Rusby and Karamon English spurned chances for the Crusaders but it was Matt Berry-Hargreaves who was guilty of the most glaring miss when he skewed a shot wide inside the box after a Jake Evans free-kick just before half time.

Into the second half and Hungerford thought they’d taken the lead when Joel Rollinson latched onto a cross and stroked the ball beyond Chippenham’s Will Henry in the 48th minute.

With no flag raised, Hungerford’s fans and players celebrated but the referee, after a lengthy consultation with his linesman, decided Joel Rollinson had in fact been offside and ruled the goal out – much to Chippenham’s delight.

The Bluebirds grew into the game as the second half progressed and forced a couple of smart saves from Jed Ward, who enjoyed another strong showing between the sticks.

However, Ward was denied his clean sheet 13 minutes from time when former Bristol Rovers midfielder Luke Russe rose highest to turn home a corner with a powerful header and put the hosts 1-0 up.

Hungerford had time for one more chance when skipper James Rusby picked out Joel Rollinson who cut inside but drilled his shot over the bar with three minutes left on the clock.

The referee’s final whistle soon followed, leaving boss Danny Robinson a visibly frustrated figure.

“We wanted to do it for the supporters,” Robinson said.

“First half I thought we were the better side, we just didn’t take our chances again.

“Second half I felt we started brightly, I have no idea why the referee disallowed our goal.

“It looked perfectly good from where I was, the linesman didn’t put his flag up.

“The referee’s given the goal but then they’ve had a mothers meeting about it and chalked it off, I’m perplexed.

“Then for their goal, it shouldn’t have been a corner in the first place, Jed didn’t touch it.

“I’m not going to moan and groan anymore, I’m going to reflect on how we didn’t deal with the corner, how we didn’t really get going in the last 20 minutes.

“We’ve got to put the ball in the back of the net, simple as that, when you’re on top of games you’ve got to score and we just didn’t.

“The best thing about football is that we go again, there’s always another game around the corner.”