'The good times will come'

Hungerford Town were deserving 2-1 winners over Berkshire rivals Slough in a crucial contest that keeps them in contention in the fight for National League South survival.

Both sides paid tribute to the fallen pre-match as the last post was sounded and a minute’s silence observed to mark Remembrance Day.

Boss Danny Robinson handed home debuts to two new signings as Dan Roberts, who signed on loan from Dartford and scored on his debut last week at Hemel Hempstead, started up front and Wycombe loanee Christie Ward lined up in attacking midfield as Hungerford reverted to a 3-5-2 formation.

And the Crusaders had a couple of early sights on goal, Rhys Tyler shooting wide in the fourth minute before Matt Berry-Hargreaves failed to turn the ball goalwards after Ryan Jones’ long throw.

There was a poignant moment in the seventh minute as the game was paused for the players, officials and fans to join in a minute’s applause for Bath City’s number seven Alex Fletcher, who is in a critical condition in hospital after colliding with an advertising hoarding in the Romans’ game with Dulwich Hamlet last week.

Back to the action and Hungerford were the better side for the first half an hour but went behind against the run of play when Slough stalwart Lee Togwell’s looping cross from outside the box sailed over Simon Grant’s head, hit the woodwork and went in to hand the visitors a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute.

That summed up Hungerford’s luck in recent weeks but the Crusaders refused to be disheartened and were level three minutes later when Roberts’ cross eventually found its way to captain Callum Willmoth who made no mistake with his weaker left foot from close range to send most of the 493 spectators into wild celebrations.

Hungerford ended the first half well on top and started the second in the same fashion, Kyle Bailey’s delicious cross finding the outstretched leg of Roberts, but the frontman couldn’t quite direct the ball on target.

Roberts didn’t have to wait much longer for his first home goal, heading Hungerford ahead from Rhys Tyler’s cross after he found himself unmarked against his former side with 20 minutes left to play.

The impressive Bristol Rovers loanee Jones almost wrapped up the three points in the 77th minute after his low drive cannoned off the post.

As the clock ticked down the Crusaders were perhaps fortunate to keep 11 on the pitch as the combative George Smith appeared to lash out at a Slough man who was down on the touchline but the referee deemed the challenge worthy of only a yellow despite the visitors’ protestations.

Slough pressed but struggled to fashion clear-cut chances, goalkeeper Rhys Forster came up for a corner but the visitors were denied by a succession of brave Hungerford blocks before substitute Imran Kayani’s shot sailed over the bar, the three points safely staying at Bulpit Lane.

Hungerford’s third win of the season and first at home since August moves them up one place to 22nd, now five points from safety having played three more games than most of the sides around them – the Crusaders still have a mountain to climb, but there is at last hope.

And boss Danny Robinson afterwards insisted that “the belief has always been there” as his side look to build on a much-needed three points.

He said: “We needed that, wins in this league are so hard to come by as we’ve found.

“Performance levels have always been good, we’ve not been hammered by anybody.

“We’ve kept believing, kept going and I’ve always maintained we’ve got a special group of players here.

“They’re not here for money, they’re not here for glitz and glamour, they’re here for Hungerford Town.

“I think we bossed it from start to finish, we’ve scored two really well worked goals and deserved to win, we can’t dwell on it because we’ve got to kick on now.”

Frontman Dan Roberts has made a fine start to life at Hungerford, scoring on his debut last week at Hemel Hempstead before marking his Bulpit bow with the winner in the second half and Robinson is hoping the Dartford loanee might be “the missing piece” to the Crusaders puzzle.

“Dan’s a fox in the box, if he can score goals regularly he might be the missing piece,” he said.

“We’ve got some other lads coming back from injuries which is massive, we’re not a club that can afford to miss our big players, we don’t have the funds to have a big squad where we can bring in £400 players to sit on the bench.

“But if we’ve got a goalscorer like Dan, we’ll always have half a chance.”

Robinson reverted to a 3-5-2 formation which allowed him to start both Roberts and Niko Muir up front and the Crusaders boss admitted he was “frustrated” he hadn’t set up with two strikers more often.

He said: “I’ve been so mad at myself over the past couple of weeks, the formation that we played today is the formation that we started off with three years ago, I’m frustrated I haven’t gone back to it before.

“We had special players in Ryan Seager and Sol Wanjau-Smith which we haven’t had, but I think now we’ve got the personnel to suit the shape we want to play a little bit better.

“I always like playing with two centre forwards.”

Robinson’s men have a week’s break from the league as Tavistock come to town in the second round of the FA Trophy on Saturday – when Hungerford return to National League South action, Robinson is confident his side can climb out of trouble.

“The belief’s always been there,” he said.

“The lads are full of belief, full of character, full of fight.

“The good times will come.”

Hungerford are in FA Trophy action at the weekend with the visit of Southern League side Tavistock before looking to build on their first league win in seven with a trip to seventh placed Braintree on November 26.