19/8/00: Ryman League Division Three

Kingsbury Town (0) 0
Tring Town (1) 1
(Kinsley 1)

Tring Town made a winning start to a league campaign for the first time since 1991 as a goal in the first minute of the game was enough to bring home the three points from the opening match at Kingsbury.

Mick Vipond kept faith with the same starting line-up that had demolished Berkhamsted the previous week, and they attacked straight from the kick-off. Scott Walters played the ball into the path of Alex Kinsley, and the 19-year old outpaced the chasing defender and lifted the ball over the advancing keeper to put Tring into the lead with just 26 seconds on the clock.

Tring's sensational start continued, and they should have been two up within two minutes, but Mike Hemingway just failed to get his head onto Sean Sangster's cross. Tring were dominating all areas of the field, and the Kingsbury keeper did well to cut out a cross from Phil Turner after a strong run down the right on 9 minutes. On 27 minutes a great cross from Kinsley found Walters unmarked in the area, and Walters should have done better than heading tamely wide.

Tring continued to create chances in the second half; in the opening five minutes Sangster shot just wide from two chances set up by Hemingway and Marcus Davis respectively. However, Tring's grip on the game was not so firm in this half, and the home side created some chances of their own. Billy Davies pulled off a fine one-handed save to keep out a free kick from Rodney Simpson on 55 minutes, and Davies also had to save from Paul McGovern on 80 minutes although the Kingsbury forward should have done better from a clear shooting chance.

In the dying minutes Tring needed a couple of desperate goal-line clearances to keep the ball out during a scramble, but in the end they held out for a win which sets them off to a rather better start than one year ago.

Team: Davies, Underwood, Denniss (Harrhy), Bartlett, Johnson, Boad, Hemingway, Sangster, Walters, Kinsley (Heywood), Turner (Davis).