RINGMER U18s – 4 v 2 - PEACEHAVEN U18s

25/11/07

Match Report by Rob Hawkes

 

The last time these two teams met in the league it was a high scoring affair at Peacehaven with Ringmer coming home with all three points. So there was little doubt that there would be goals in this game. With a few players unavailable for selection through injury, it was a depleted Ringmer squad that turned out to face Peacehaven and with half the starting line up having played for the Reserve team yesterday, this match was going to be a real test of stamina for the lads.

 

Ringmer kicked off and almost immediately were awarded a free kick on the edge of the Peacehaven penalty area. Everybody expected Betsworth to test the keeper early on, but rather than shooting for goal his played the ball square along the 18yd line and the ball was driven in hard and after a few deflections was eventually tapped home by Amro Shaker from a couple of yards out.

 

In the 9th minute Rob Frost extended Ringmer’s lead by beating the Peacehaven keeper to the ball tight on the by-line and fired in from the very tight angle to make it 2 – 0. Shortly after the restart Peacehaven broke through and looked like they were about to peg back Ringmer’s lead when Jesse Stonell racing back into his own goal mouth cleared the ball off the line and was left hanging in the net.

 

Following another of Ringmer’s relentless assaults on the Peacehaven goal Paul O’Donnell found himself wide left on the Peacehaven by-line, cutting the ball back to Andy Bonnicci who fired in a screamer into the bottom left hand corner of the net to make it 3 – 0. At this point in the game and up to the half time whistle Ringmer’s dominance was absolute and it looked like it was going to be a torrid time at The Caburn for the visitors.

 

Peacehaven kicked off the second half and seemed much the stronger side, putting Ringmer defence under a lot of pressure for the next 15 minutes. But Ringmer fought hard and Rob Frost’s relentless work rate and anticipation paid off when Peacehaven’s keeper failed to hang on to a testing cross played in from wide right by Jake Buckle. It was a simple finish for Rob as the ball fell to his feet on the goal line. 4 – 0 to Ringmer. As the game restarted Bob Munnery rested Ryan Betsworth, bringing on Andy Smith up front.

 

The remaining 25 minutes were difficult for Ringmer as the players who had played 90 minutes for the reserves the previous day started to tire. And at no point in the game did Peacehaven give up the fight or ever consider that a point was beyond their reach, despite being 4 goals down. Their persistence paid off when in the 70th minute they were awarded a free kick on the edge of the Ringmer area. The ball found its way (all too easily it seemed) through the crowded area into the back of the net. In the 81st minute Peacehaven continued to put the tired Ringmer defence under pressure and Dan Davis was unable to hold a long range speculative shot which fell into his net to make it 4 – 2.

 

Digging deep into their energy reserves and retaining possession of the ball, Ringmer re took control of the game for the remaining 10 minutes. It wasn’t the cricket score that the first 30 minutes lead us to expect, but it was a good hard won victory against a Peacehaven side that would just not lie down and accept defeat graciously.

 

 

 

No	Players.Name	Substitution ...,,	Goals	Remarks.....
1	Dan Davies	.	-	-
2	Jake Buckle	Jack Sewell	.	.
3	Paul O'Donnell	.	.	-
4	Justin Wood	.	.	.
5	Jesse Stonell	.	.	(C)
6	James Novis	.	.	.
7	Andy Bonnicci	.	1	22
8	Josh Hawkes	.	.	.
9	Ryan Betsworth	Andy Smith	.	.
10	Rob Frost	.	2	9,63
11	Amro Shaker	.	1	1
	SUBSTITUTES---
12	Andy Smith	Used (63)	.	.
14	.	Not Used	.	.
15	.	Not Used	.	-
16	.	Not Used	.	-
17	.	Not Used	-	.
.	.	.	.
Management
Manager		Bob Munnery
Head Coach		Steve Oliver
Sports Therapist		...
Official
Referee		Steve Walker
Club Linesman		Ben Ruth (R)

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.