Tring see off Sonning in ill-tempered clash

Tring began brightly with an excellent solo goal from Sam Highfield in the first few minutes, before tempers flared.

In the icy atmosphere Tring somehow kept a clean sheet, partly due to some good saves and partly due to the woeful finishing of the Sonning forwards.

Elsewhere, the Tring men’s 2s continued their unbeaten start to 2016 with a 3-2 win over Ashford 3s.

Playing in a howling gale, Tring started well but couldn’t find a way through the Ashford defence.

Ashford worked their way into the game and took the lead through a short corner, but Tring responded with a goal by left-back Dudley Moor-Radford.

Ashford once again took the lead, however, with the ball ricocheting off the Tring goalkeeper and defender before just creeping over the line.

Despite this, a possible Ashford lead at the break was dashed when Tring captain Ben Holman smashed the ball home from the top of the D to restore parity once again.

Tring started brightly in the second half and a good passage of play was rewarded when Dillon Hall lifted the ball over the Ashford keeper to put his side in front for the first time in the game.

The last 15 minutes was all Ashford pressure but Tring held on bravely to secure the three points and offer a hope of escape from the relegation zone.

Meanwhile, in a closely contested match, the Tring men’s third team fought out a 3-3 draw with third in the table Leighton Buzzard after recovering from being 3-1 down at one stage.

Leighton started the match the better side and capitalised on some uncertainty in the Tring defence to take a one-goal lead.

However, Tring equalised almost immediately, with Ian Styles creating a chance for Mark Dalton to finish with a diving shot.

Leighton then scored twice more before Dolton and Styles combined again.

This time the latter placed a shot past the keeper following a flicked attempt from the Tring centre-forward after good work on the right wing by Owen Hillair-Brady.

Following a reorganisation of Tring’s defensive duties, the second half was a much tighter contest.

Tring created numerous chances to level the game but it wasn’t until the last five minutes of the match that they scored the goal their good approach work deserved, with Styles finishing a well-worked short corner routine.

Tring then had to survive a period of sustained pressure from Leighton, who won successive short corners at the end of the match but, all in all, the draw was probably the right result.