NOW THAT’S A RED HERRING!

Crusaders boss solves goalkeeper crisis

HUNGERFORD playermanager Ian Herring may well have kept the most impressive clean sheet of the season – after stepping in as emergency goalkeeper at Hemel Hempstead on Tuesday night.

The Crusaders, fresh from a 6-0 drubbing at Chelmsford at the weekend, saw their 16-year-old keeper Jokull Andersson, on loan from Reading, substituted after 20 minutes following a clash of heads.

With no reserve goalkeeper on the bench, leader Herring pulled on the gloves – and steered his side to a precious point in a 0-0 draw.

“It was quite a nasty clash and Jokull tried to carry on but he couldn’t,” Herring told The NLP. “I had a discussion with him that the number one priority is his health and safety. It was a wise decision for him to come off.

“It’s something I’ve done before and I felt that it wouldn’t faze me. With Jokull being injured we had the opportunity to bring the lads in, have a chat with them and get in their minds to not worry about it, nothing changed. Luckily it went okay. “I played in goal as a kid and I’ve always messed around in training – I did do it once for Hungerford at Bashley! Jokull has 21 days out minimum, that’s the standard protocol. Is it something I can do every week? No way!” Hemel, tipped for another play-off push, had taken seven points from their first three games before Hungerford’s visit, but were frustrated by the visitors’ heroics.

Richard Whittingham came on for Andersson as Herring changed into the goalkeeper’s kit.

Result

Both sides had their chances but neither could find a way through with Herring making one strong save at his near post late on.

“I didn’t have a lot to do to be totally honest which is a credit to how the ten in front of me played,” he added. “The lads did superb to restrict them to possibly one or two half chances which is a credit to my team.

“We’ve only got one keeper, it is something the budget dictates unfortunately as well as finding another goalkeeper who would want to sit on the bench. There aren’t many of them around for the money we can afford to pay them. It is quite rare a keeper gets injured.

“The way the fixtures have fallen, probably the teams we’ll play in the first six games will be in the top eight come the end of the season.

“Coming off the back of the Chelmsford defeat, a point at Hemel which is a tough place to go, considering everything that went on, it was a great result.”

Hungerford have signed goalkeeper Liam Driscoll on loan from Reading to fill the void.