GOOD HUNGERFORD TEAM MAKE US WORK HARD FOR THE WIN

Friendly 3pm Sat 21 July 2007

Cirencester Town 3      Hungerford Town 1 HT: 2 - 1
Jackson 35 (p)                   Austin 40
Etale 43
Lightbody 76

Hellenic Premier Hungerford were far the better side in the early stages, with quick positional interchanges and slick passing time after time discomfiting an experimental Ciren backline in a 4 4 2 formation. Twice, young Charlie Austin was played in behind the defence by the quick feet of Jamie Goslin and twice Matt Bulman was alert and positioned well to stop the shot.

Pressed back in midfield, where Harry Etheridge and Michael Jackson were being overpowered by quick challenges from Graham Edney and Adam Pilling, and unable to hold the ball up front where former Academy stopper Nick McCrae was dominant for Hungerford, the Centurions had neither time or space to build enough pressure to threaten former Academy ‘keeper Shaun Purcell.

Triallist David Etale was getting no service up the left, though he was doing well to cover back as Hungerford pressed Dan Hilder hard on the left of the Ciren defence. Harry Etheridge, striving perhaps too eagerly to contain the midfield, was finding it hard to hit his targets and with Danny Beck quick and physical in his tussles with JP Mills on the Ciren right flank the loose balls were all falling to the visitors.

And they used it well. Bulman again had to be agile to cut out dangerous passes behind the defence, his speed and timing perhaps the only positive coming out of a difficult first 30 minutes. Alex Rudd was sacrificed up front to be replaced by the physically more imposing Nathan Lightbody, playing himself back to fitness after a 4 year lay-off from football. While he too was finding it difficult to control the ball as it was pinged up from the back, his ability to contain McCrae gave Ciren breathing space.

Chris Collins, winning all his contests, was leading by example and his insistence that Ciren took time to control the ball saw the balance slowly turn. Michael Jackson kept feeding Dan Hilder, who in turn started to give Etale runs against Danny Beck. Hungerford, their aggression wilting in the face of Ciren determination, were conceding space.

The opener was all about gambling to hit the gaps up front. Jackson, feeding Hilder, went for the gap on the edge of the penalty area. And an inch perfect pass from Alex Stanley, fed by Hilder, saw the little midfielder outwit Beck to cut inside only to have his legs taken from under him. Michael Jackson, nominated by Collins, smacked the penalty home with aplomb on 35 minutes. Against the run of play, maybe, but due reward to Ciren for holding out after they had been ripped to bits.

Charlie Austin, who had earlier turned and fired a super volley just wide with the Ciren central defence shredded, went one better on 40 minutes. A momentary miscue on the Ciren right saw the ball transferred with bewildering speed and admirable accuracy through the middle for Jamie Goslin to turn and again feed Charlie Austin. This time his spin and strike was sweet and into the top corner for 1 - 1, in spite of Bulman getting up and across to tip it but not out of the net.

Five minutes later the pay-off from the training came. Chris Collins, a rock at the back, won a fifty-fifty on the right flank to loop the ball back inside after a Ciren attack had been cleared. Lightbody leapt, JP Mills was first to the loose ball and fed Harry Etheridge. 30 yards out, he immediately slotted a killer pass into the gap behind the defence up the left where David Etale had run the drill to perfection, ahead of Beck and far quicker than Purcell to react to the opening.

Beating the keeper to the ball, and his body strength keeping him on his feet, he slotted left and banged his fierce shot home from 10 yards for a sweet 2 - 1 at half time. The team had obviously listened to their attacking coach in the previous weeks and the pay-off was positive.

Second half saw 4 Ciren changes, as well as a switch of Chris Collins to centre back and JP Mills now playing right wing back in a 3 5 2 formation. It stifled the intricate passing of Edney, Goslin and Austin. And, time after time, Ciren kept feeding Dan Hilder on the left who now was controlling the ball and looking for his targets.

Snaky Stanley, with Lightbody alongside, was rampaging along the line, with Ian McSherry cutely tucking in behind, controlling the forward passes and keeping possession. With Nathan Haisley making an immediate impact in midfield, Hungerford were suddenly themselves now under severe pressure.

And, perhaps, regretting a momentary misjudgement by the otherwise immaculate Lee Molyneux on 50 minutes, underhitting a header back and forcing Bulman to race outside his box to retrieve. Losing the ball to Austin, he could then only watch as the 18 year old took aim but shanked wide from 25 yards.

Maybe it was a fitness thing, maybe it was tactical, but the Hungerford fluency of the first half had gone. Forced to hit long balls forward, they were kept under constant pressure. That they held out so long is credit to their ability and determination. But when, on 76 minutes, a quick series of passes started and finished by Dan Hilder saw Nathan Haisley free and clear 25 yards out and set himself to send in a thunderbolt, it was only a desperate deflection by McCrae that kept it out.

Thinking and reacting far quicker than anybody else, Nathan Lightbody controlled and fired in from 16 yards for the clincher. Some might say it was a poachers goal. Purple Haze might even claim it was actually a through pass. The fact is, it was a chance and it was buried clinically by the ‘New Nathan’ off an assist by ‘Our Nathan’.

Hungerford came back, retaining the ball but, this time, were being forced to pass it around in front of an implacable Ciren defence. No passes got through and the triumvirate at the back imperiously cleaned up whenever a loose pass came their way. Nick Stanley had a go for the goal his efforts deserved.

One shot from 20 yards was over optimistic, and when Lightbody unselfishly set him up on the edge of the box after breaking clear on a sumptuous pass up the right from Toby Clapton, Nick McCrae snuffed out the shot at the last minute. On 90 minutes Dan Hilder, who had increasingly dominated his left flank with his fleetness of foot and determination to be first to the ball, sent Snaky Stanley away, drove on and should have been rewarded with a return pass but, possibly, had no breath left to let Snakes know he had made the overlap clear and free into the box.

It was, in the second half, an encouraging display by Ciren. Hungerford are no mugs, they compete hard [for a friendly there were a lot of free kicks in a match well refereed by Mr Lewis} and given a moment to settle on the ball they usually picked the right pass to embarrass the Ciren defence.

That they did not turn that into goals is down to the immaculate display between the posts of Matty Bulman. Can’t play the Carlsberg Kev card any more but we may be seeing the emergence of some sort of nickname to do with an apple brew for our new ‘keeper.

Cirencester: Matt Bulman, Chris Collins (c), Dan Hilder, Michael Jackson [Steve Robinson 63], He-Ho Kim [Lee Molyneux 45], Alex Stanley, JP Mills [Toby Clapton 83], Harry Etheridge [Nathan Haisley 45], Phil Hall [Ian McSherry 45], Alex Rudd [Nathan Lightbody 25], David Etale [Nick Stanley 45]

Hungerford: Shaun Purcell, Danny Beck, Jim Smith, Toby Clark, Nick McCrae, Adam Pilling (c), Shaun Terry, Charlie Austin [Craig Shand 75], Jamie Goslin, Graham Edney [Adam Giles 57], Mark McKeeking [Kev Coles 28]

Ref: Mr Sam Lewis, Tewkesbury (came by boat, I think)

Att: 91 MoM: Dan Hilder [Cirencester]