Hungerford hit road west

September 20, 2012

HUNGERFORD Town look set to hand a start to young goalkeeper Lawrence Griffiths as they seek to avoid hearing ‘The brown bells of Merthyr’ in Saturday’s FA Cup Second Qualifying Round tie in the Welsh valleys.

First choice Paul Strudley is in Scotland on family business and manager Bobby Wilkinson is considering handing Griffiths his first-team debut in the cauldron of Penydarren Park against a side that impressed the manager when he watched them hammer Fleet Town 4-0 on their own ground in a midweek FA Trophy replay.

“He has been excellent in training,” said the manager.

“He hasn’t been frightened to come and get the ball out of the air or throw his body in there.

“Maybe I need to give him his chance.

“But it is a big game to do that in, and I might still pull out a loan deal on a one-off basis.

“But we shall work with Lawrence in training and I’ll be confident in him if our back four is solid and the team turns up.”

Hungerford will need to improve in the wake of their own FA Trophy debacle at Slough last Sunday which left Wilkinson “the maddest I have ever been”.

“When we are on top we are unstoppable, but when we don’t turn up it’s dreadful,” he said.

“We gave away a goal with a comical error and then battered them for the whole game but we just kept giving the ball away. “I just couldn’t believe how we played, but we’ve got to take it on the chin and not dwell on this one. “We haven’t spoken about it and are not going to. If it means we sacrificed Sunday to win this Saturday, I’ll take that.”