Match Report : Ian Claxton
Ringwood Town 5 v US Portsmouth 1
Sydenhams Wessex Division One
Saturday February 19th 2011 – KO 3pm
Attendance 35
High flying United Services were shell shocked after 5 minutes to find themselves three goals behind after just 5 minutes of this match, but recovered a little to make a game of it although the home side dominated play for most of the 90 minutes. Ringwood found the back of the net within 30 second of the start, Dan Marks driving home before a US Portsmouth player had even touched the ball. Early pressure won Ringwood a corner from which Carl Fleet made it 2-0 in the third minute and Sean Leadbetter banged the ball home at the far post from another corner with less than 5 minutes of time elapsed. Jon Page pulled of a flying save on the half hour mark to deny the visitors their only real chance on goal as Ringwood pressed forward without further reward for a comfortable 3-0 lead at the break. Ringwood started two debutees for the game , Alex Cley at centre half and Jamie Chalk at centre forward. Both fitted in well and Chalk settled quickly into a partnership with Carl Fleet.
The Second half started a little more brightly for the visitors but Tom Yeats goal at the far post from another corner on 56 minutes extinguished their fight, and Carl fleet’s 25 yard rocket on 56 minutes all but buried them. Chalk sent Fleet through again a few minutes later but the keeper saved this effort and another from Chalk soon after. Ringwood could have had a hat full by this point. Page had little to do but again made a fingertip save towards the games end to deny a 20 yards shot but his efforts to keep a clean sheet were foiled by the lively Pete Vine with US Portsmouth’s conciliation goal on 86 minutes when Sub Dan Schwartz was caught ball watching having only just entered the game.
All round fine and well motivated Ringwood performance for the whole 90 minutes and well conduced from the side line by injured striker Stuart Brown making his debut in the technical area as Wayne’s assistant. Difficult to pick out anyone for praise above the rest , but my MoM has to be Dan Marks, who got the opener and never put a foot wrong at left back all afternoon, there was just no way past him.
RT 1. Jon Page 2 Dan Marks (1g-1) Dan Morrell 4 Adam Hetherington 5 Alex Eley (debut) 6 Tom Yeats(c) (1g-56) 7.Chris Payne( sub 14 Pete Old 56mins) 8. Pete Clarke ( sub 12 Nick Howes 60 mins) 9. James Chalk (debut) 10 Carl Fleet(2g-5,63) 11. Sean Leadbetter (1g-3) (sub16 Dan Schwartz 65 mins)
subs not used 15 Chris Bailey 17 Callum Wells
US Portsmouth 1 Pete Houkes 2. Luke Grice 3.Gary Barnes 4.Jack Lee 5.Craig Merritt( sub 12 Craig Richardson 60mins) 6.Dave Wilson(capt) 7.Joe sandham 8 harry bass 9 mark Robinson 10 Pete Lines (1g86) 11.Dale Holmes( sub 16 Jamie Cook78 mins) sub not used 14 Jack Gregory
Match Report : Ian Claxton
Ringwood Town 0 v Stockbridge 1
Sydenhams Wessex Division One
Tuesday February 22nd 2011 – KO 7.45pm
Attendance 25
Ringwood’s topsy-turvy form this season took another twist as the same starting eleven who destroyed high flying US Portsmouth just three days ago lost by a single goal to second from bottom Stockbridge in a wholly uninspiring match. The only goal came from the spot on 22 minutes after Ringwood’s keeper Jon Page was sent off for a 50/50 challenge on Steve Witt who had beaten the offside trap and was one-on-one with the keeper as they both chased down the loose ball. The referee adjudged a clear scoring opportunity to have been denied and so Page had to go, but if an assessor had not been watching his every move, would he have seen it differently?. Who knows. However, Witt made no mistake from the penalty spot to beat stand-in keeper, Sean Leadbetter and that was to be the deciding moment. Ringwood had by this time been denied a score by the woodwork and Page had pulled off a fine save to push a 20 yards drive around the post to keep the visitors scoreless from open play. But there were few further shots to worry either keeper for the rest of the game which grew increasingly frustrating for players and spectators alike, born out by the fact that when the odd goalscoring opportunity finally presented itself the result was a blazed shot well over the bar. Stockbridge seemed content tom hold onto their lead and made no use of their man advantage Ringwood couldn’t raise their game after a poor start .
RT 1. Jon Page (Red-22mins) 2 Dan Marks Dan Morrell 4 Adam Hetherington 5 Alex Eley 6 Tom Yeats(c) 7.Chris Payne ( sub 14 Pete Old 63mins) 8. Pete Clarke 9. James Chalk (sub 17 Chris bailey 68mins) 10 Carl Fleet 11. Sean Leadbetter (in goal 22 mins) Subs not used 12 Nick Howes 15. Callum Wells 16 Charlie Heggan
Stockbridge 1.Alan Ralph 2. Andy Burgess 3.Steve Smith 4Gavin Richards 5 Sam Coleman (Y-76) 6 Jamie Coleman 7.Simon Poultney(c) 8.Jack Hutchings 9.Dave Cotter 10.Nick Coates 11. Steve Witt (1g-22pen)(Y-68) Subs not used 12 Mike Baker 14.Aaron Black 15.Lewis BainClick Here access to the Ringwood Town Senior Club website