Hungerford Tow's Danny Robinson aware National League South difficulties despite last season's performance

HUNGERFORD Town manager Danny Robinson has already been putting plans together ahead of pre-season, which begins for his side next month.

The Crusaders have been out of competitive action since February and saw their National League South season end early after a voting system on the outcome due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With this being done, it has given Robinson even more time to reflect and prepare on the league campaign ahead, which starts in August.

“We will be starting pre-season on June 15 and we have some fantastic friendlies to play ahead of the season.

“We’ll be up against Bristol City U23s and we will also come up against Cheltenham Town, who have been promoted this year, so we’re looking forward to them.

“It will be another tough pre-season, tougher than last year, but I can’t wait to get going.”

Hungerford maintained a position in the play-off spots of the National League South before the season was curtailed and despite this, Robinson is expecting another challenging campaign.

“We had a free hit last season because of where Hungerford finished the season before and, at times, I felt that some teams underestimated us a little bit.

“We’re probably going to be favourites to go down this year, we’re probably the team that everyone thinks won’t be able to sustain things.

“What we did last year wasn’t a fluke and the league table doesn’t lie, but this year will be even harder because of what we did.”

Away from the pitch, Hungerford Town took part in the social media boycott along with other sports teams and businesses in West Berkshire and across the country, in an attempt to stamp out online and racial abuse that sports participants receive.

Speaking about it, he said: “What gives a person the right to sit behind a keyboard and racially abuse or abuse someone in anyway.

“Why should people have such vulgar slated towards them for doing the job that they do and I fully support my football club for being a part of it.

“I had a weekend off from social media and we only get one life so surely you want to try and make it as happy as you can.”

Thatcham Town, Reading FC and Newbury Racecourse were just a few other sports teams that took part in the boycott.