Nightmare on Fleet Street as relegated Crusaders crushed by champions

Hungerford Town’s time in the National League South came to an end with a crushing 5-0 defeat at champions Ebbsfleet.

It was an ignominious albeit understandable end to a proud eight year stay in the sixth tier for the Crusaders, who were routed following a hat-trick from Toby Edser and goals from Greg Cundle and Shaquile Coulthirst.

The harsh truth is that the two sides are worlds apart – Ebbsfleet’s attendance of 2,155 is some six times bigger than Hungerford’s average gate, the Fleet are full time and have an incomparably larger budget than the Crusaders – and so it’s little surprise the two teams have finished at opposite ends of the table.

Ebbsfleet can look forward to taking on relative footballing giants like Hartlepool United and Southend while the Crusaders are preparing for a return to the Southern Premier League, where they’ll rub shoulders with Hendon and Hanwell.

The hosts were without Dominic Poleon, who scored 36 goals in 43 games this season, while Hungerford boss Danny Robinson made two changes, bringing in Joel Rollinson and midfielder Callum Gunner.

The visitors gave Ebbsfleet a guard of honour as the champions emerged onto the pitch but the Crusaders appeared not to have realised the procession was meant to end prior to kick-off, leaving themselves wide open and allowing the superb Toby Edser to make it 1-0 after just two minutes.

Hungerford might as well still have been standing and applauding as Sam McQueen was given far too much time and space on the right flank before pulling the ball back for the arriving Edser, who swept a first time finish underneath Max Evans, who made the first mistake of what was to become a nightmarish afternoon as the Yeovil loanee let the midfielder’s strike squirm through him.

Fleet were playing with all the swagger and confidence of a side that won the league with more than 100 points and, despite a few moments of promise from Michael Fernandes, were dominating proceedings in the Kent sunshine.

The hosts doubled their lead in added time at the end of the first half when Greg Cundle finished off a smart move after Hungerford were caught napping from a short corner.

Veteran midfielder Josh Wright laid the ball off to Ben Chapman, who backheeled the ball back to the former Gillingham man, who in turn had time to pick out Cundle in space and the attacker swept the ball into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 at the break.

Crusaders keeper Evans was enduring a real nightmare on Fleet Street and gave the home side a third shortly after the restart when he dallied on the ball for far too long before panicking and firing his clearance straight at Shaquile Coulthirst, who set himself and curled the ball into a half open goal to compound Hungerford’s misery.

At this point, the visitors were probably looking forward to a change of pace in the Southern League as the full-time Fleet were looking like scoring every time they came forward, making it 4-0 after 51 minutes.

The hosts scythed through Hungerford’s beleaguered back line and Cundle crossed for the arriving Edser, who rifled the ball into the roof of the net to score his second of the afternoon and Ebbsfleet’s 109th of the season, leaving them needing one more to break the club’s all-time record for a single season.

To give Evans his due credit Fleet could have broken their record much sooner had the 20-year-old not made a couple of excellent saves, thwarting Edser down to his left on the hour after Hungerford failed to deal with a corner.

However the goalscoring record eventually tumbled in the 73rd minute when Edser completed a historic hat-trick, finishing off a fluid move following an incisive pull back from Wright to make it 5-0.

The hardy travelling contingent almost had something to celebrate with a minute of normal time remaining.

Fernandes – who had worked hard all afternoon – crossed the ball in to substitute Great Evans and the frontman headed into the bottom corner but not before he’d clearly gained a yard of space by shoving a Fleet defender in the back and the referee rightly ruled it out.

Full time probably came as a relief to the Crusaders, who can hold their heads high having fought hard right to the end before coming up against a side that were a class above most of the opposition this season.