Spot kick dismay for Crusaders

Early dismissal and late penalty winner blows for Hungerford

Hungerford Town 0 Eastbourne Borough 1

PENALTIES at the start and near the finish saw Hungerford’s home form extend to five matches without a win.

They had to play 85 minutes with 10 men after Diak John was sent off following the opening penalty call, a seemingly harsh one from referee Rob Massey-Ellis.

Len Redwood’s low cross fell for Jamie Taylor to hammer the ball from the edge of the box, but his shot struck John’s arm as the defender leaned to the side, and the referee deemed it to be deliberately goal-bound shot.

Luckily there is no punishment for the goalkeeper doing the same, and Lewis Ward got across to keep out Lloyd Dawes’ kick.

Hungerford came under most pressure after that, and Eastbourne’s Harley Willard wasted two good chances while Hungerford were limited to distance efforts from James Clark and Louis Soares.

But they held solid until a dozen minutes from time when substitute Ian Herring clipped Sergio Torres in the box and this time Matt Drage squeezed his shot just beyond Ward.

Hungerford Town: Ward; Tyler. Thomas, Rusby, John; Soares, Clark, Simpson, Stonehouse; Brown, Bignall. Subs: Wall, Partridge, Whittingham, Herring, Beauchamp.