31/8/99: Ryman League Cup Preliminary Round

Edgware Town 0 Tring Town 2

Tring Town's young side could be starting to realise their potential as they battled to their first win of the season last night. They claimed the scalp of Division Two side Edgware Town in the Ryman League Cup and will now travel to Hungerford Town in the next round.

Tring started the match brightly, and went ahead after just 8 minutes. Matt Rawdon beat the offside trap to go clear down the right. His cross found Ben McGuire at the far post, who squared it for Sean Sangster with his back to goal. He couldn't find the space to shoot, but instead laid it back for Eddie Gerrard to smash home a shot from 10 yards.

Tring could have gone further ahead a minute later when Rawdon's pass put Sangster through, but his shot was saved by the keeper. Edgware came back strongly towards the end of the half, and had the ball in the net on 41 minutes but it was ruled out by the linesman's flag. On the stroke of half time Keith McLoughlin was fully extended to turn a rasping shot from Steve Ohene round the post.

For the majority of the second half, the Tring goal was under siege, but on this occasion their defending was strong and disciplined. A key factor was the return of Paul Aldridge to the side. There were a few scares along the way - on 57 minutes a tremendous free kick from Leon Constantine was tipped onto the bar by McLoughlin, and ten minutes from time Mark Underwood put the ball inches over his own crossbar from an Edgware cross. McLoughlin got down well to save a close-range downward header from Darren Raymond a minute from time, but the issue was settled two minutes into stoppage time.

Substitute Kevin Godbold got ahead of the last defender from a flick-on by Rawdon, and struck an excellent shot from the edge of the area into the top corner of the net for his fifth goal of the season and Tring's first win.

Team: McLoughlin, Underwood, Simpson, Turner, Hall, Aldridge, Gerrard, McKane, Rawdon, Sangster, McGuire (Godbold). Subs not used: Asquith, Chapman.