29/8/00: Ryman League Cup Preliminary Round

Tring Town 0 Wingate & Finchley 2

Tring suffered a disappointing defeat in the Ryman League Cup last night, and missed out on the prospect of a lucrative local derby with Chesham United as a result.

The visitors took the lead in the 7^th minute when the Tring defence was caught out of position. Dean Nyman squared for Paul Hakim to score from close range. Tring suffered a blow when captain Neal Bartlett had to leave the game with a twisted ankle. However they came very close to pulling level two minutes before the break when Sean Sangster's shot from the edge of the area had the keeper beaten, but was kept out by the far post. Within a minute, though, Wingate had broken away and Steve Brady shot home a crucial second goal to leave Tring with a mountain to climb.

The second half was a story of a series of missed opportunities for Tring to get back into the game. The first of those came on 62 minutes when the keeper tried to collect a long throw from Mark Underwood, but the ball slipped through his hands. Antony Beamish stuck out a leg but couldn't quite divert the ball into the empty net. On 71 minutes Mike Hemingway made a surging run from the halfway line before slipping the ball through to Steve Groves. The keeper got a hand to Groves' shot, but it was still heading goalwards until a defender got back in time to hack the ball off the line. Three minutes later the keeper fumbled again when trying to collect a corner. Hemingway's first effort was blocked by the keeper and his second hit a defender on the line.

Over the last 15 minutes Tring had three strikers on the field and threw everything at Wingate, but could not get the ball into the net.

Team: Milner, Underwood, Denniss, Bartlett (Turner), Johnson, Boad (Hall), Heywood (Groves), Sangster, Hemingway, Kinsley, Beamish.