Ringmer 2 Oakwood 2

27/10/07

Report by David Ruffles

 

Ringmer failed to make it three league wins in a week when they had to fight back from an early two goal deficit at home to a spirited Oakwood to earn a draw.

 

A neatly worked free kick after seven minutes saw Dave Soutar pass the ball to Luke Gedling in the Oakwood penalty area but with his back to goal, he played the ball out to Marc Whiteman who set up Norbert Sule with a shot from outside the area which just cleared the bar. Then a long ball out of defence found Miles Scerri and he turned his marker only to shoot weakly at the keeper. His long clearance found its way to Ross Harris running in from the left flank. Harris fired his shot into the far corner of the net to give Oakwood the lead after nine minutes. Almost straight from the re-start Lee Wood broke through the Blues defence only to put his shot over the bar. Oakwood’s tactics of playing long balls out of defence for their quick young forwards to run onto was stretching the Ringmer defence and a second goal for the visitors seemed on the cards. It duly arrived in contentious circumstances when a penalty was awarded against Soutar, who appeared to be more sinned against than sinner in a tussle with an Oakwood player. Matt May got a touch on Liam Hunter’s spot kick but was unable to keep the ball out of the net. Rattled up by this second setback the Blues took time to get in their stride and had May to thank for preventing visitor going further ahead when he tipped a close range header from the unmarked Gavin Gordon over the bar. However the Blues did pull a goal back just before half-time when Sule played the ball into the path of Whiteman who was able to slide the ball home underneath the keeper.

 

Ringmer were on top for almost the entire second half as they pressed forward in search of an equaliser. However, although they created a number of chances they were unable to apply the vital finishing touch. All the pressure finally told when the Oakwood keeper brought down Whiteman inside his penalty area. From the spot kick Miles Scerri sent the keeper the wrong way to level the scores. Moments later the Ringmer defence backed off the advancing David Neathey to give him a clear shot at goal from thirty yards but he could only blaze the ball over the cross bar. Then Mark Price was unlucky not to settle the game in favour of the home side when his well struck shot seemed destined to have the net bulging if only it could have avoided Whiteman’s head in the goalmouth. In virtually the last action of the match a cross-field pass from Nick Barden found Joe Dryer on the right wing. Dryer cut inside and shot from the edge of the box and it took a fine diving save from the keeper to deny Ringmer all three points.

 

 

 

No	Players.Name....	Substitution ...,,	Goals	Remarks
1	Mat May	.	-	-
2	Glen Matten	Andy Hart	.	.
3	Dave Soutar	Dan Evans	.	.
4	Steve Hunt	.	.	.
5	Ryan MacMillan	.	.	.
6	Norbert Sule	Mark Price	.	.
7	Luke Gedling	.	.	.
8	Joe Dryer	.	.
9	Mark Whiteman	.	1	43
10	Miles Scerri	.	1P	66
11	Nick Barden	.	.	(C)
-	SUBSTITUTES	-	-	-
12	Dan Evans	Used	.	.
14	Mark Price	Used	.	.
15	Andy Hart	Used	.	-
16	Paul Thomsett	Not Used	.	-
17	.	Not Used	.	.
.	.	.	.	.
Manager		Steve Johnson
Assistant Manager		Paul Thomsett
Sports Therapist		Ian Fairs
Referee		Colin Mallows
Assistant 1		Nigel Bullen
Assistant 2		James Harding
Attendance		63