9/4/02: St Mary's Cup semi-final

Tring Town 0 Hemel Hempstead Town 2

Tring missed out on reaching a cup final after suffering a rare defeat in last night's semi-final. It was a meeting of two in-form teams at Pendley, and Tring were certainly not outplayed, in fact it was only poor defending from two corners either side of half time that let them down.

Both sides had their fair share of chances in an exciting first half. On 7 minutes Sean Sangster rifled a shot just over the Hemel bar, whilst a minute later Hemel's Hugh Nartey had a header from point-blank range cleared off the line. Scott Walters miscued a shot over the bar when Neal Bartlett's cross dropped for him, and at the other end Darren Grieves' volley came back off the post.

On 33 minutes a pass from Scott Walters put Alex Kinsley in a race with Hemel's Rene Street, which Kinsley won but pulled his eventual shot across the face of goal and wide. Ben Chesters struck a free kick just over the bar, and Walters shot wide a minute before the break when Chesters set him up with a clear chance. Having at times outplayed Hemel, and having had the better chances, Tring found themselves a goal down in first half injury time. Rene Street was unmarked as a corner came over, and shot home at the far post.

Another corner proved Tring's undoing seven minutes into the second half, Lee Graves getting the final touch with a header after the ball had come back across the face of goal. Hemel sought to kill the game after this, which they largely succeeded in doing, although Tring battled well until the end and were unlucky not to pull at least a goal back.

Team: Bartley, Sangster (Oliver), Barber, Bartlett, L.Johnson, Underwood (C.Gibson), Chesters, Walters, Butler, Kinsley, Beamish.