24/11/01: Ryman League Division Three

Tring's league form may have improved over recent weeks, but they are still being let down by their appalling away record. They still have just two points to show from their travels this season after Saturday's defeat at Hertford.

Hertford started the day twelve places above Tring in the table, but there looked little to choose between the two sides in a scrappy opening to the game. There had been hardly a chance for either side before Hertford opened the scoring on 22 minutes with a poor goal from Tring's point of view. A ball played over the top allowed Lee Munt to race in between two Tring defenders, and although keeper Neil Hunt came off his line to try to intercept the danger, Munt got there first and simply knocked the ball past the advancing keeper into the empty net.

Tring should have been level two minutes later when Alex Kinsley was released down the right and delivered an excellent cross, but Dave Butler headed over the bar from six yards out.

The game was still very much in the balance as they second half began, but it turned irrevocably against Tring in the space of five minutes. Firstly on 59 minutes another simple ball over the top allowed Hertford's top scorer Kevin Cooper to get the better of Lee Johnson before running on to hit a shot which beat Hunt at his near post.

Within a minute of the restart Hunt was picking the ball out of the net again, having been caught off his line by the quick-thinking Munt, who lobbed him from 40 yards to put Hertford three goals ahead. It got even worse for Tring a couple of minutes later when they were reduced to ten men. Hertford's Mitchell Parratt went down as if poleaxed under an alleged headbutt from Lee Johnson, who was adamant that no contact was made, but the referee consulted his linesman and the outcome was that a furious Johnson saw a red card.

That just about ended the match as a contest, and there were no further goals although Tring were unlucky not to pull one back from one of a number of good crosses in the final minutes.

Team: Hunt, Underwood (Walters), Barber, Bartlett, L.Johnson, Boad, Sangster, Hibbert (Chesters), Butler, Kinsley, Beamish.