11/4/00: Ryman League Division Three

Tring Town 2 Lewes 3

Tring were beaten by a controversial goal after another brave performance against a team from the top half of the table. Injuries and suspensions forced Tring to reshuffle their side, and two hours of heavy rain before the kick-off made for terrible conditions.

Despite this, Tring made an impressive start to the game, with Rob McKane forcing a save out of the Lewes keeper after three minutes with a close-range volley after Antony Beamish had headed a free kick back across the face of goal. Two minutes later some trickery from Fergus Nevin set up a long-range shot from Liam Walsh which brought an acrobatic tip-over from the keeper. On 8 minutes McKane was put clean through but was brought down just outside the box by Stuart Hack. This should have produced a red card, but Hack was only booked, which was typical of the weak refereering evident throughout the match. However, Tony Oliver exacted some justice by curling the free-kick into the top corner of the net to put Tring into a deserved lead.

The lead only lasted three minutes though. A through pass from Jon Lockhart split open Tring's unfamiliar-looking back four, and Tommy Pattenden went through to lift the ball over Alistair Joslin for the equaliser. On 28 minutes Tring were behind when poor defending allowed Dominic Shepherd to hit an angled shot from the edge of the area past Joslin for Lewes's second goal.

For the next few minutes Tring's goal was under siege as the visitors won a series of corners and had at least four near misses. However, Tring survived to go into the break only one goal behind.

The heavy rain returned in the second half to make the conditions even more difficult. The match itself was equally stormy with several players from both sides becoming involved in a brawl early in the half. However, Tring continued to play some good football. On 55 minutes Tring broke quickly from a Lewes corner, and James Armstrong's pass put McKane through, but his shot was saved by the keeper. On 65 minutes Armstrong was brought down by the keeper inside the box as he chased a loose ball, and Neal Bartlett made no mistake from the penalty spot to square the match at 2-2.

Five minutes later Tring should have gone in front from another superb quick counter-attack. Nevin's pass left Oliver with only the keeper to beat, but he lifted his shot over the bar. At this stage the match was end-to-end with both sides using long balls in an attempt to force a mistake out of the other's defence. The goal which decided the game, though, was something of an anticlimax. On 77 minutes Joslin attempted to punch away an inswinging corner, but the referee adjudged that the ball had crossed the line. In the confusion that followed, many of the crowd were unaware that Lewes were back in front until the teams lined-up again for the restart.

Tring battled to the end to try and rescue a point, but couldn't force the ball home despite several scrambles in a very sticky goalmouth.

Team: Joslin, Bartlett, Harrhy, Walsh, Beamish, Boad, Gerrard, Mckane, Armstrong, Oliver, Nevin