FROME Town suffered defeat for only the second time in 12 matches as they were thrashed at play-off chasing Hungerford Town last weekend.

Mitchell Page came back into the team following a three-match suspension but Nick Bunyard's were again without the services of Marcus Mapstone, Darren Chitty, Sam Teale and Rob Hobbs, though Kris Miller did return from injury.

The writing was on the wall in the first minute as Ed Baldy saved with his legs from James Clark after Jordan Walker had slipped and as the resulting corner was swung in, Hungerford again went close as Nat Jarvis hit a shot that bobbled just past the far post.

As the match settled, the hosts just kept turning the screw and man-of-the match Connor Roberts produced a superb late tackle to deny Jarvis in the 4th minute.

Five minutes later, Hungerford should really have opened the scoring as the dangerous Garyn Preen hit a low left-wing cross that the diving Stefan Brown just failed to reach.

Jordan Walker was a little fortunate to stay on the pitch in the 11th minute as he miskicked and was then adjudged to have pulled back Preen as he accelerated towards the Frome goal, with the referee only reaching for a yellow card, to the relief of the travelling fans.

Baldy did well under pressure to punch clear twice in the 20th minute as Hungerford looked for the opener, and Frome finally carved out a chance in the 32nd as Jon Davies got to the dead ball line to pull the ball back invitingly only for Page to just fail to get a touch.

Hungerford eventually got their reward in the 34th when a free-kick was met at the far post by right-back Gary Horgan, who nodded the ball over Baldy into the far corner, albeit with the slight suspicion of a push on a Frome defender.

It looked like it would be 2-0 in the 37th minute as three Hungerford players lined up to shoot home from close range, but Baldy did remarkably well to get his body in the way of the shot from Brown and with Frome testing Paul Strudley from range a couple of times just before the interval, there was hope that the second half might be a bit more even.

However, it wasn’t to be and Hungerford went 2-0 up in the 51st minute as a left-wing corner was swung in by Ian Herring for unmarked centre-half Mike Jones to powerfully head home at the near post.

After Baldy had again saved from Clark, it was 3-0 just 12 minutes later as Matt Day had oceans of time and space to fire a ball out to Rhys Tyler, who breezed past the challenge of Davies and scored with a left foot shot.

Two minutes later, it was 4-0 as Horgan headed home a long throw for his second of the game and at this stage, it was becoming embarrassingly easy for Hungerford.

Baldy saved well again from Mark Draycott in the 68th minute and Brown hammered the rebound over the bar. A shot from Jones went just wide in the 75th minute, Baldy again saved from Herring in the 83rd minute, and it took until the 88th minute for Strudley to make his first save of the second half as George Miller hit a sweetly struck left-foot shot into his body.

Baldy saving low from Preen right at the end as the Robins suffered disappointment in their penultimate game of the season.