Team: Hipple, San Emeterio, Grundy, Kuodys, E. Richards, Francis, Shipman, De Baros, Fewtrell, Stapleton, Richards

Subs: Flanders (Fewtrell - 70), Loffler (Francis 75)

Goal Scorers: Shipman, Own Goal.

Sent Off: Richards, De Baros.

How often do you see it, 2-0 up & looking comfortable only to go & draw or lose the game. Well this was typically one of those days. Although we looked comfortable throughout the 1st 45 minutes & of course you would take a two goal lead at half time, we were slightly dissapointed as excellent chances were missed to realistically go in 4 goals to the good.

There was another debut for a youth team player, this time it was Elliot Richards who was nothing short of outstanding, he slotted in at left back & on 1st impressions is definitely one for the 1st team sometime in the not too distant future & that was the most pleasing aspect of the day. At one point we had 5 current youth team players on the pitch which is excellent, that for me is what reserve team football is all about & has got to be the way forward for this football club.

Tring were lively & the defence was well orchestrated by goalie come centre half Mindy Kuodys who is looking better with every game that passes. At times we played some good football, getting the ball into wide areas & always looking dangerous in attack. Chances came & went with Stapleton & Richards coming close. The deadlock was broken when a great ball was played over the top & into the left channel by Elliot Richards, Dave Richards ran onto the through ball & following a big step over crossed dangerously into the penalty area, Stapleton with great vision laid the ball into the path of Tom Shipman who smashed the ball into the bottom corner. 1-0.

Hartley kept pressing & following a cross into the box the Tring defender headed expertly into the top corner of his own goal. 2-0.

The 2nd half was always going to be a challenge. Tring started brightly & began to come back into the game with good posession, playing neat football. Stapleton excellently jinked his way into the penalty area & will be dissapointed not to make it 3-0 when one on one, credit to the goalie for saving well with his feet.

Tring pulled the game back to 2-1, early in the half in what was quite a bizarre situation. Steve Grundy brought the Tring centre forward down & a penalty was awarded. Sounds straightforward, but not when the linesman on the near side was 100% certain that the foul was committed outside of the penalty area, although this was the case he refused to inform the referee as in his own words "was not his job to do so as he was only the assistant referee" - laughable. The penalty was dispatched with confidence - 2-1.

The tide was clearly turning & things became even more difficult when Dave Richards was sent off for his 2nd yellow card, it was harsh but in the letter of the law delaying the goalie from kicking the ball out of his hands is a bookable offence, it is a shame that the ref didn't consistently keep to the letter of the law throughout. Difficult turned into near on impossible when we were reduced to 9 players, this time it was Pedro de Baros, who was sent off following his decision to question the linesman. Funny how on this occasion the linesman was able to flag the referee & get his attention leading to a red card but couldn't do exactly that for the penalty.

With 11 men I am confident we would have gone onto win the game, with 10 possibly, with 9 almost certainly not. This was because at this point Tring played the correct game keeping posession & taking their time to find openings. Unsurprisingly with only around 10 minutes to go it became  2-2 , posession was kept in the centre of the park & with the central midfielder not being shut down quick enough he picked his spot & smashed an unstoppable shot into the far top corner.

Although at one point it looked like a certain 3 points we were now realistically looking at coming away with none. This was confirmed when in the last couple of minutes the right sided Tring player was not shut down & cutting in from the right wing drove the ball into the far bottom corner from all of 20 yards. 2-3.

Dissapointed doesn't describe the outcome of this game. But when you have 2 players sent off you are not going to win games, that has happened in the last 2 games & simply isn't acceptable.

Although the result was hard to take, the performances of a number of the players was very pleasing, especially the youngsters in the side who continue to impress with the quality that they are showing when playing a very good standard of adult football.