Compton brace makes for another away day success

City made it two away wins in three days this evening with a 2-1 victory over Hungerford Town at Bulpit Lane. All the goals came in the second half, with Jack Compton netting both of City’s, the first from the penalty spot, before Soares pulled one back for the hosts to give City a nervous final ten minutes. Compton missed a second penalty, moments after the first, following a bizarre change of mind by the referee, where he showed Herring a red card for bringing down Marvin Morgan only to reduce it to a yellow after consulting with one of his assistants. The first half had largely been characterised by mistakes from both sides, as they struggled to produce any constructive football on the considerable Bulpit Lane slope. Hungerford saw a couple of shots deflected narrowly wide and Morgan had one goalbound header blocked but it was no surprise that the game was goalless as the break. Playing down the slope the Crusaders nearly took the lead on 59 minutes when Bignall’s shot was superbly turned away by Luke Southwood. Then two minutes later Nick McCootie was bundled over just inside the area and Compton confidently stroked home the penalty to give City the lead. Just another two minutes has passed when Mr Harris was pointing at the spot again, this time after Herring had felled Morgan. Whether the delay with the red card confusion distracted Compton is not clear but his effort this time was easily saved by Ward. The keeper then produced a stunning one-handed save to keep out Nat Jarvis’ header but on 73 minutes he could do nothing to stop Compton’s great volley finding the net via the post. City looked in total control of the game but with seven minutes left Soares burst clear on goal to slot the ball past Southwood and give Hungerford a lifeline. Despite a couple of nervous moments, though, City withstood Hungerford’s desperate attempts to fashion an equaliser to secure the three points which lifts them into the 7th place ahead of the start of their FA Cup campaign at home to Knaphill FC at Twerton Park on Saturday.