Westfield 2^nd XI – 1 v 4 – Ringmer 2^nd XI

05/04/08

Match Report by Rob Hawkes

Today’s victory has to be one of Bob & Steve’s finest or at least one of their hardest won. Despite beating Westfield by 5 clear goals two weeks ago at the Caburn, the odds were firmly stacked against Ringmer getting anything from this game. Despite having a squad of 26 Reserve and Youth team players signed on, Bob only had an injury wracked 13 left available to him to meet Westfield, after the first team had taken their quota. This 13 was quickly reduced to 12 as Elliott Finney’s injury prevented him from completing the pre-match warm up and the 12 was always going to be reduced to 11 men 20 minutes from the end of the match as Jamie would have to leave early to meet work commitments.

The fact that Bob managed to field a team at all was an achievement in itself, but the odds just got worse for him and the team when in the 2^nd minute of the game Rob Frost was KO’d when he blocked a close range clearance with his chin. It took Rob a full eight minutes before he was able to rejoin the field of play, but as he was clearly struggling to remember where he was or who he was playing for he had to be substituted in the 22^nd minute.

Ringmer’s first goal came from a route one kick from Dan Davies, which was headed on by Buckle for Sam Sowter to volley home from the edge of the area, into the bottom left hand corner of the net. Westfield equalised just before half time with another route one effort, this time over the Ringmer defence for their no.7 to run onto and lob Dan as he ran out to close the angles. The first half concluded 1 – 1 and Ringmer were far from comfortable. It looked as though they were going to drop points at Westfield simply because of the lack of numbers Bob had available to him.

In the 55^th minute it looked like the numbers were going to be further reduced as Dan came out of his area to close down another Westfield attack and was adjudged to have handled the ball outside of his area. Mr Avery showed some commonsense and only a yellow card rather than a red one.

In this close game the next goal was always going to be important and fortunately it was Ringmer who scored it. Louis Munnery (who played 90 minutes with a foot injury) picked up the ball just outside the Westfield penalty area, passed it out left to Buckle who picked out a great left footed cross to find Josh Hawkes who took a touch before drilling the ball past the keeper into the Westfield net. This seemed to settle Ringmer and they started to impose their game on Westfield, with some moments of great inter play.

Ringmer secured all three points with two late goals. The first from Captain Jamie Gray in the 88^th minute, whose superbly taken free kick on the edge of the 18 yard box flew round the wall into the top of the net. Ringmer’s fourth goal came from Sam Sowter in injury time who headed home an excellent James Earwicker cross. Jamie Gray then immediately left the field of play with the result beyond doubt but more likely because he’d just remembered that hundreds of punters needed feeding in a hurry.

There were periods in this game where the play wasn’t that pretty, but there were also moments of brilliance such as Dan’s save in the first half when 1 on 1 with a Westfield striker and also Louis’ 2^nd half volley forcing a great goal line save from their keeper. But this game will not be remembered for that or all the great goals but for the commitment and determination from those that travelled with Bob and Steve, to battle hard against all the odds and take another very determined step towards promotion. It was a fantastic effort from the whole team.

 

	Player	Goals	Comment
1	Dan Davies	.	(GK)
2	Jesse Stonell	.	.
3	James Earwicker	.	.
4	Louis Munnery	.	.
5	Aaron Last	.	.
6	Matt Davies	.	.
7	Rob Frost	.	.
8	Jamie Gray	88	(Capt.)
9	Sam Sowter	30,91	.
10	Josh Hawkes	65	.
11	James Novis	.	.

 

	Substitutes	Goals	Comment
12	Elliott Finney	.	Not Used
14	Jake Buckle	.	On for Rob Frost (22)
15	.	.	Not Used
16	.	.	Not Used
17	.	.	Not Used

 

Referee	Chris Avery
Linesman (Ringmer)	Lee Cramp

 

Manager	Bob Munnery
Coach	Steve Oliver
Physio	.

Please note: The above report is a personal view by the writer, Rob Hawkes and should not been seen as necessarily totally factual or accurate. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the contents no liability rests with the writer and the contents should be studied and approved by the editor and Ringmer FC in general prior to publication.