Match Preview | Hungerford Town

Hungerford Town v Tiverton Town 

Saturday 16th August 3pm Kick Off

Bulpit Lane 

 The Yellows are back up the motorway tomorrow, where their destination will be Hungerford. On Tuesday night, Gloucester City, who have been installed as some peoples promotion favourites, took home a 2-1 victory from Bulpit Lane, whilst Tiverton got off the mark, winning handsomely by three to one at Dorchester. 

A Louis Jagger Cane brace and a Jacob Wellington goal ensuring a very good and memorable success. There were many positives to take, and a high bar has been set with this performance. However, with the season being in its infancy, no one within the camp is getting too carried away. 

It was refreshing though to see the side play so well through the team and be resilient in what can be a hostile environment. The hard-working Yellows put a lot into Tuesday night, though they should be fully recovered and raring to go against strong and experienced opponents. 

Creative midfielder Toby Stephens who has started the season impressively, finished the season with our hosts after moving from Totton. 

Danny Robinsons` team may have lost their first two games, but it would be foolish to underestimate their threat. Big spending new-boys Farnham away and the aforementioned Gloucester City is perhaps as hard a start as any in this division. 

The Crusaders recruitment over the summer looks good and they moved fast to bolster last year's squad by bringing in a lot of talented and proven players in step 3 from the relegated clubs.  

Goalkeeper Luke Cairney for many year’s an impressive and admired gloveman at Poole, he continued that reputation at Winchester and Robinson reacted quickly to acquire his services, returning to Hungerford, who he starred for in National League South in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 campaigns. 

Harry Williams and Zack Kotwica have arrived from Swindon Supermarine and are joined by other former teammates from the Wiltshire side, in the Crusaders dressing room.   

Powerful centre back Tyrone Duffus, a Gloucester player last season, attacking midfielder Brad Hooper and striker Conor McDonagh, who were already playing for the hosts, completing the reunion. 

Goalscoring ex Bath winger James Ollis has signed from Frome, where he was very much a hot property and ball winning midfielder Alex Monks is another to have swapped Frome for Hungerford this summer. 

A mainstay of the Crusaders defence is Matt Berry Hargreaves. The former Oxford United pro has started his seventh consecutive season for the hosts and is a strong and dependable performer at this level while left back Curtis Angell is another popular player, who has a long association with the club. 

Captain Louis McGrory is equally as effective in either midfield or defence and home-grown, combative midfielder George Smith has won many plaudits for his displays. With a brief professional career at Swindon Town, Jacob Bancroft is also a midfield option with plenty of ability. 

Conor McDonagh missed the entire 2024/25 season through injury but notched 24 goals in the previous season and his strong all round forward play was first taken note of at Swindon Supermarine.  

Attacking midfielder or forward Harry Williams scored a goal a game 34 goals in the 22/23 Southern League Premier South campaign and the technically gifted ex Cheltenham Town player Williams, definitely has the ability to turn a game. 

Asa Hall and Steve Orchard’s men will be hoping to continue very much in the same vein as they did on Tuesday night but will be very wary and respectful of a Hungerford side, who possess real quality. 

History will go out of the window on Saturday, though for the record since Hungerford joined our division in the 2023/24 season they have won two out of the four encounters, both at the Slee Blackwell, although Tiverton won and drew at Bulpit Lane, in the other two games.