3/11/01: Ryman League Division Three

Wingate & Finchley 0 Tring Town 0

Tring continued their steady progress with another hard-earned point in a tight game at Wingate and Finchley. In their last six league games, Tring have lost only one and kept clean sheets in all the other five.

The first half was somewhat scrappy, with neither side creating many chances. On 23 minutes Tring's Antony Beamish had a close-range header saved. The goalkeeper's resulting drop kick went over the head of Lee Johnson leaving Daniel Fitzpatrick with a clear run on goal, but he ran the ball too far ahead of himself and allowed Simon Bartley to come out and save.

Things began to open out a bit more in the second half, and each side had a number of near misses. On the hour, Richard Baum slid in to connect with Fitzpatrick's low cross, but the ball squirmed just the wrong side of the post. Two minutes later a quickly-taken free kick by Chris Gibson was turned round the post by the Wingate keeper. Tring went close again on 78 minutes when Mark Underwood's overhead cross led to a goalmouth scramble in which both Beamish and Leon Hibbert had chances but could not force the ball home.

The last five minutes of the match saw both sides miss glaring chances. Wingate should have scored when Baum broke from inside his own half before setting up Fitzpatrick with only Bartley to beat, but his shot went into the side netting. A minute later Tring had a chance when Alex Kinsley's corner was headed back across goal by Beamish for Underwood, but he somehow only got a glancing touch on the ball when any sort of meaningful contact would have put the ball in the net. Bartley pulled off crucial point-blank saves from James Thompson and John Butterfield as time ticked away, and in the dying seconds Hibbert headed wide from another good chance to leave the result as a stalemate.

Team: Bartley, Gibson, Winks, Bartlett, L.Johnson, Underwood (Oliver), Sangster (Groves), Hibbert, Butler, Kinsley, Beamish.