29/1/02: St Mary's Cup 2^nd Round

An injury time winner set Tring up with a home semi-final against Hemel Hempstead or Bedmond Sports in the St Mary's Cup. It was certainly not a classic performance, but given that Tring had not played for two weeks, it was a satisfactory night's work.

The visitors had the better of the first half, with Tring only going close on a couple of occasions. On 9 minutes Wayne Barber robbed a defender on the edge of the area and pulled the ball back across goal, but Scott Walters could not quite force the ball home as he slid in at the far post. On 32 minutes Dave Butler beat two defenders in a run along the goal-line, but his shot was saved at the near post by keeper Mazurek.

Tring edged the second half, and although both sides put in plenty of effort, for the majority of the half they had no shots on target to show for it. Leverstock had their best chance ten minutes from time when Mark Burfoot broke away and set up a shot for Jared Juster, but he shot over the bar. As the clock ticked to 90 minutes, extra time looked inevitable, but suddenly Tring found a late burst of energy.

Walters was put clean through, but his eventual shot was deflected over the bar. From the resulting corner Mazurek produced a tremendous save to keep out Lee Johnson's powerful header. However, in the third minute of stoppage time, a free kick was headed down to Johnson, and he controlled the ball before firing home what proved to be the decisive goal. Tring could even have added a second shortly after when Walters' pass put Ben Chesters through on the keeper, but Mazurek produced another good save. After seven minutes of added time the referee finally blew up to ensure Tring's passage into the next round.

Team: Davies, Hemingway (Oliver), Barber, Bartlett, L.Johnson, Sangster, Chesters, Walters, Butler, Kinsley, Beamish.