17/10/00: Associate Members Trophy First Round

Arlesey Town 4 Tring Town 0

Tring went out of the Associate Members Trophy at the first hurdle on a night to forget at Arlesey's Hitchin Road ground. Mick Vipond tried out some changes to the line-up in this game, and the team got off to the worst possible start. Tring gave the ball away straight from the kick-off and Dave Kitson burst clear down the right to shoot Arlesey in front from a narrow angle within the opening 30 seconds of the match.

On 16 minutes Tring gave the ball away again, and Kitson raced clear again. This time he was brought down by a challenge inside the box and Lee Tekell scored Arlesey's second from the penalty spot. Two minutes later Tring almost pulled a goal back when a deflected shot from Mike Hemingway almost looped into the net, but Arlesey keeper Martin Patching just tipped it over the bar. On 33 minutes Tring got themselves into more trouble and gave away another penalty, and Tekell made no mistake again to send the home side into the break with a 3-0 lead, and such was their superiority it could have been several more.

Four minutes into the second half Tony Fontenelle added the fourth goal from a corner. Tring's problems increased when Antony Beamish was sent off for raising his hands, and soon after Steve Boad followed him into an early bath for his second bookable offence. However, Tring's nine men looked less vulnerable than they had with the full complement, and no further goals were added. In fact the game ended with nineteen men on the field, as Arlesey lost a player to injury having already used their three subs.

Team: Davies, Beamish, Denniss, Bartlett, Johnson, Boad, Hemingway (Underwood), Sangster (Turner), Walters (Kinsley), Swales, Groves.