Hungerford Town struggle at Dulwich Hamlet after forced break due to positive coronavirus case at club

Danny Robinson believes his Hungerford Town squad struggled both ‘physically and mentally’ with the demands of Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Dulwich Hamlet.

The Crusaders have been out of action since August 30 as the squad were told to isolate due to their being a positive covid case at the club.

As a result, they have been unable to train or play and Saturday’s game at Dulwich was moved to Sunday.

“The league put the fixture back 24 hours, but I don’t think it made that much of a difference because we weren’t right at all.

“Dulwich were brilliant, and they got everything they deserved, but to have 14 days off and only have one training session since then it did take its toll.

“I feel that at lower levels you may get away with not doing as much, but at this level if you’re not physically fit or you don’t have a chance to work on things you can get punished.”

Keith Emmerson scored Hungerford’s only goal as they were leading 1-1 at the break, but two late goals from Giovanni McGregor and Danny Mills handed the home side all three points.

“In the first-half we were very good and we deserved to be level at the break, but in the second-half we physically died and you could see it.

“Unfortunately this situation will happen in the league, but if it happens again we need to be able to deal with it better.

“We had a good first-half, but you could tell that the players weren’t physically or mentally quite right.”

The scoreline could have been worse for Hungerford as Dulwich failed to convert two penalties.

Darren McQueen, who scored the first goal, blazed his kick over the bar before McGregor was denied by Luke Cairney.

The Crusaders will now have to regroup ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup second qualifying round match at home to Truro City.

“It is the greatest club competition in the world and I stick to that,” admitted Robinson. “Truro beat us 4-0 at their place last year in the FA Cup and we have to start putting wins on at home.

“I don’t think we have been very good at home and it’s not right for our supporters who come and pay to watch us.”