Southern League Premier South \u2013 Saturday 11th April 2026
\nHungerford Town 1 vs 3 Basingstoke Town Attendance 472
\nWhere: Bulpitt Lane, Hungerford, Berkshire RG17 0AY
\n<\/b>Manager Dan Brownlie\u2019s line-up was: 1. Simon Grant, 2. Zach Ioannides, 3. Joe O\u2019Loughlin, 4. Scott Armsworth, 5. Jack Ball, 6. Billy Upton (Capt), 7. George Reid, 8. Josh Green, 9. Joe Grant, 10. Ore Bello, 11. Robbie Gallagher,
\nOn the bench: 12. Ben Cook, 14. D\u2019Andre Brown, 14. Dan Rowe, 15. Lloyd Snell, 17. James Clark
\nReferee \u2013 Robert Ablitt<\/p>\n
Basingstoke opened the game kicking downhill, and were the team on top in the opening minutes of play as the expected bumpy pitch, was affecting both sides.
\nStoke continued to push forward, and the pressure finally paid dividends, as the ball fell to Ore Bello, who made just enough connection of the ball, to mis-direct the keeper, as the ball bounced into the net.\u00a0GOAL!<\/b>\u00a0Hungerford Town 0 \u2013\u00a01 Basingstoke Town (Bello 11 mins)
\n<\/b>
\nStoke continued to look threatening and Robbie Gallagher & Ore Bello were put through against a slow Hungerford back-four, and this should have resulted in a second goal for Stoke, as Bello found George Reid, who took one touch, and then smashed his shot from close range against the crossbar and away.
\nThe weather was noticeably changing as we hit the twenty-minute mark, as dark grey clouds were heading towards the ground, and two minutes later the ground was being pelted with hailstones.<\/p>\n
However, as the hailstones stopped, Hungerford were to make their first real attack count, as a shot from outside the penalty area, beat Simon Grant, as it found the bottom left-hand corner of the goal. Hungerford 1 \u2013 1 Basingstoke<\/p>\n
Stoke continued to press for the second goal, and this came close when Bello smashed a volley against the post with five minutes to the break.
\nHowever, despite all the dominance, we went into the break level, with still some work to do.<\/p>\n
Halftime Score: Hungerford Town 1 vs 1 Basingstoke Town
\n<\/b>With no changes at halftime, Stoke began the second-half kicking up hill, and Stoke looked to regain the lead, and received that all important fortunate piece of help from the referee, as what seemed in slow motion, Reid and Cairney in a comical entanglement in the penalty area, saw the referee point to the penalty spot.\u00a0The penalty was taken and converted once more by Ore Bello\u00a0GOAL!!\u00a0<\/b>Hungerford Town 1 \u2013\u00a02 Basingstoke Town (Bello 48 mins Pen)
\n<\/b>
\nJoe Grant was through two minutes later, but his shot was blazed wide.
\nStoke continued to attack, but a break from Hungerford saw, their player go in the book for a dive inside the penalty area.
\nStoke were still looking for that all important third goal, but the game was getting scrappy, as we moved to the midway point of the second-half.
\nOre Bello came close to his hat-trick from a free-kick, but his shot allowed Cairney to clear.<\/p>\n
Stoke had further shots blocked from Grant then Billy Upton, but Hungerford from our attack, broke down the right, and forced a save out of Simon Grant.<\/p>\n
A minute later, Hungerford could have been reduced to ten men, as Reid was brought down, as he tried to race clear, but the referee chose to award a yellow card to the Hungerford defender.
\nStoke were still the team on top, but Hungerford came close to a leveller, as the ball bounced around our penalty area, but Scott Armsworth, made a vital block.
\nStoke then made it\u2019s first change of the day as George Reid was replaced by Lloyd Snell (72 mins).<\/p>\n
Very little to note over the next few minutes, but it was Gallagher once more, with his tenacious desire to battle for everything, that brought dividends to Stoke, as he won the ball back on the right, then broke along the goal-line, before finding Bello, who slid the ball to Joe Grant who planted his shot in the left-hand corner of the goal,\u00a0GOAL!!!<\/b>\u00a0Hungerford Town 1 \u2013\u00a03 Basingstoke Town (J Grant 84 mins)
\n<\/b>
\nA minute later, our goal-scorer Joe Grant was replaced by D\u2019Andre Brown (85 mins).
\nBello came close to his hat-trick once more, but his shot was saved by Cairney once more.<\/p>\n
That was to be Bello\u2019s last action for the game, as he was then replaced by Dan Rowe (90 mins).
\nNow deep in added-time, Stoke made its final two changes, as Josh Green was replaced by Ben Cook, and Robbie Gallagher was replaced by James Clark (93 mins).
\nStoke continued to look for the fourth, but the referee had seen enough and blew the final whistle, on a good performance and three vital points.<\/p>\n
Final Score: Hungerford Town 1 vs 3 Basingstoke Town
\n<\/b>Marcon 25 mins,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Bello 11 & 48 mins (Pen), J Grant 82 mins,<\/p>\n
Match Thoughts
\n<\/b>Stoke put in a strong and battling performance, and completed the job against a poor Hungerford Town team. Stoke produced plenty of chances in both halves of the game, but a stubborn Hungerford Town side, restricted it to just the three goals. However, the ultimate point of the game was achieved as Stoke put all worries of relegation to bed with the three points.
\nTwo games left as we sit in fourteenth, four points above the relegation zone and with Tiverton Town to come.
\nUp Next:
\n<\/b>We are back home next Saturday (18th), for our final home game of the season, as we host relegated Tiverton Town, KO 3pm.<\/p>\n
Match Report by Martin French..<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Southern League Premier South \u2013 Saturday 11th April 2026 Hungerford Town 1 vs 3 Basingstoke Town Attendance 472 Where: Bulpitt Lane, Hungerford, Berkshire RG17 0AY Manager Dan Brownlie\u2019s line-up was: 1. Simon Grant, 2. Zach Ioannides, 3. Joe O\u2019Loughlin, 4. Scott Armsworth, 5. Jack Ball, 6. Billy Upton (Capt), 7. George Reid, 8. Josh Green, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,109,108,2,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2023-24-news","category-2025-26-match-reports","category-2025-26-news","category-featured","category-match-reports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Hungerford-Town.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9086,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085\/revisions\/9086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}