1/2/00: Ryman League Division Three

Tring Town 0 East Thurrock United 3

Tring found the might of the Division Three leaders too much as their unbeaten run ended amidst rain and mud in last night's league match.

Tring showed only one change from Saturday's line-up, with new signing Fergus Nevin in for the injured Eddie Gerrard, and they made a promising start to the match. On 7 minutes they almost went in front in spectacular style when Tony Oliver went on a solo run that took him past four defenders, but struck his eventual shot just over the bar.

Tring's only other effort of the half was a shot on the turn by Scott Walters that was easily gathered by the keeper, and the visitors started to look threatening towards the end of the half. An injury sustained by Tring keeper Keith McLoughlin requiring lengthy treatment meant there was plenty of stoppage time, and Thurrock twice went close before taking the lead seven minutes into injury time. Jim Stevens got on the end of a floated free kick to head past McLoughlin and send Thurrock into the interval on a high.

The lead was doubled five minutes into the second half. A Thurrock attacker was brought down inside the area, and Wes Faulkner put away the penalty confidently. Tring then had their best spell of the match, with Marcus Davis sending a free kick across the face of goal on 55 minutes, and Nevin shooting just wide a few minutes later, but Tring could not capitalize on their pressure to produce the goal needed to get them back into the match.

Thurrock scored a simple third goal on the break ten minutes from time, and immediately had to make a goalkeeping change when keeper Grant Lee was carried off, but stand-in keeper Steve Bilton was only required to touch the ball once over those last ten minutes as Tring's challenge fizzled out.

Team: McLoughlin, Underwood, Simpson (Davis), Bartlett, Gordon, Boad, Nevin, Beamish, Walters, Oliver, McKane (Myatt)