Louis McGrory double fires Hungerford Town past Hanwell Hanwell Town

Hungerford Town manager Danny Robinson was happy with his side’s routine win over Hanwell on Saturday.

“I felt it was comfortable,” he said.

“That side picked itself after the win against Basingstoke.

“We were the better team throughout.

“The only time they troubled us was when we went down to ten.

“But we stood up and got the result. It was fully deserved.”

Centre-back Jordan Rose received a controversial second yellow, being sent off despite not actually making contact with his supposed victim.

“It was extremely harsh,” he said.

“It was nowhere near a foul, let alone a booking.

“Jordan clearly won the ball, and the chap just fell over and squealed in front of him.

“The referee even apologised to Jordan in the tunnel afterwards, which was no consolation.

“The first one was soft as well.”

Hungerford put away Hanwell in convincing fashion.

The Crusaders put out an unchanged side from their 2-1 win over Basingstoke a week prior.

Hungerford went in front just eight minutes in, as midfielder Louis McGrory produced an instinctive finish to put his side 1-0 up early on.

They continued to apply pressure, as centre-back Matt Berry-Hargreaves saw a floated effort deflected for a corner, from which George Smith hit the side-netting.

Midfielder Joe Shepherd saw a shot saved, while the channel running of striker Kyle Tooze continued to cause problems for the Hanwell defence.

On the brink of half-time Tooze broke clear once again.

He crossed into the box to find Shepherd in space, but his volley fell into the hands of the visiting keeper.

This Hungerford pressure continued in the second half.

Constantly causing the opposing defence problems, it was right-wing-back and captain Rhys Tyler who was brought down in the box for a penalty in the 53rd minute.

McGrory smashed it home for his second of the afternoon, a goal which put him top of the Hungerford scoring charts.

Centre-back Jordan Rose had the ball in the net on the hour-mark, but he was judged to have been very narrowly offside.

Tyler, Luke Softley and Jose Marquez all went close with chances, before the game changed for the last ten minutes.

Hungerford held out for a 2-0 to continue their charge towards the play-offs.

Cameron Squires made the bench on Saturday, a product of the Hungerford U23s side who are themselves in great form.

“The U23s are top of their league,” he said.

“We have good young players in that side and Cam has been one of the best.

“He was fully deserving of his call up.

“One of the real success stories of our season is what Jason Braidwood and Chris Passey have done with the U23s.”

There could be more to come, with Robinson working closely alongside both youth coaches, ensuring synergy throughout the club’s senior and youth squads.

“I’ve known Jason a long time,” he said.

“When I started off, he was one of the coaches at Winchester.

“We sing off the same hymn sheet, we do it together.

“They see how we play, how we train, and they dovetail with that.

“We want the best young local players here, we had that at Thatcham too.

“Cam Squires, Brad Passey, Alex Braidwood, Kian McNally and James Tomlinson have all trained with the first team.

“They might get some opportunities.”