Poole Town were visitors on Tuesday evening. This game always stirs up emotions in some of our fans although for me I missed some of the more tense games during my self imposed exile. I put a tongue-in-cheek summary of the game as a “comfortable home win” but in reality it was far from it. Conor McDonagh was the man who got us the win with a brace now 17 for the season. CMAC adding to his growing popularity and wine collection with another star man award, now 7 this season. Goals against Poole will certainly endear you the Hungerford fans Conor! Check out Conor’s and all the other players stats on the website page which I’m still updating with info when I can.

The game marked Luke Carnell’s last for the club as he’s gone back to Didcot. After a really good start to his time at Hungerford including some crucial goals he’s struggled to get into the starting lineup since Jack Wright arrived a few weeks ago. Luke is a really good lad though and was popular with the fans so we wish him well. I’m sure Bedders and Conners will look after him at Didcot. With a departure came an arrival Brandon Ligget joined us on loan form Cheltenham and I got to meet him briefly before training on Thursday, hopefully he’ll have as big an impact as the other Cheltenham loanee Adulai Sambu

A Saturday trip to Westfield, which is in fact in Woking gave myself and some friends the chance for a train away day which is always a popular option. It cost £13 with a group saver ticket and despite a couple of minor delays due to the volume of Portsmouth fans travelling to Reading we arrived in good time. Obviously for my little gang Wetherspoons is the traditional pre match go to but there are other options available! Despite two hours in Spoons, we still made it in good time to the ground, with a little help from Westfield’s left-back’s Gran who guided us to their ground! It was a very nice ground too with a lovely main stand and an amazing balcony bar with a great pitch view. We won the match of course which always makes awayday’s more enjoyable! You can read about that match in the match report. It was a rain filled journey home though that sapped my appetite for dressing up for Halloween by the time we reached the dryness of Hungerford so sadly no plastic pitch costume or in reality no Kylo Renn costume for the clubs well attended party. Although I saw some scary moves on the dancefloor!

The sad news also reached us on Saturday the Bob Ponsford has passed away. An absolute club legend is Bob probably playing well over 500 times for Hungerford and doing loads more for the club also. I’m sure Mike will do a much better tribute than I as Bob deserves in the next programme but obviously our thoughts are with Sandra and all of his family.

The final bit of news from the week was the Trophy draw and its Truro City at home. Thankfully as I am sure none of us really fancied that away day at short notice. Another team with a bit of history against us so expect some spice in that tie. There has also been some big victories on both sides in this fixture previously so it could be a high scoring game too. Make sure you don’t miss it as we are Wembley bound!

Have a good rest of the week Crusaders!