Tring Athletic young guns lose out to high flying Sun Sports

Chris Vardy came close for Tring. Picture (c) Colin Sturges

The ﬁrst 20 minutes saw little in the way of goalscoring chances, but Sun broke the deadlock shortly afterwards. Tring keeper Jack Hopwood sprinted from his line but striker Ashley Lewis got to the ball ﬁrst and slotted home into the open goal.

Athletic’s young side were ﬁnding it difficult to get into any sort of rhythm against a more experienced side, and Sun began to dominate the game.

Tring conceded two free-kicks on the edge of their penalty area, one which went narrowly wide and the other easily being saved by Hopwood.

At the other end, Athletic’s ﬁrst shot on target was from Kieron Turner in the 35th minute which home keeper Ross Hampton managed to scramble away for a corner.

Their only other opportunity was a shot by Greg Deer which ﬂew high and wide just before half-time.

In contrast to the ﬁrst half, Athletic sprinted out of the blocks after the interval and were unfortunate not to level things up.

In the ﬁrst minute of the half, Chris Vardy ran on to a loose ball and rounded the keeper, but saw his shot from an angle go wide of the goal.

Just a minute later, Ollie Hogg hit a terriﬁc shot that went just wide, before Vardy was played through on the left but Hampton smothered his shot. The loose ball ended up at Turner’s feet, but his shot was also blocked.

With Athletic failing to score during this period, Sports regrouped, and there were few chances at either end as neither side was able to dominate.

However, the game was wrapped up two minutes into stoppage time when a long ball eluded Athletic’s defenders, and Craig Lynskey ran through before squaring for Richard Pearce to shoot low and hard into the far corner.

It was disappointing result for Athletic, although with a little bit of luck they could easily have got something out of the game.

Sun Sports: Ross Hampton, Gary Wallace, Matt Jarvis, Edwin Twesigomwe, Scott Bonner, Gary Simmonds (Craig Lynskey 73), Dan Weeks (Liam James 83), Joe Kelly, Jim Armstrong(Richard Pearce 81), Ashley Lewis (c), Nathan Pooley.

Tring Athletic: Jack Hopwood, Kevin MaManus, Luke Dunstan (Taylor Collins 70), Dan Stedman, Chris Salmon (c), Adam Toone, Lee Stobbs (Ryan Sturges 81), Kieron Turner, Greg Deer (Sam Joliffe 77), Ollie Hogg, Chris Vardy.