Tring Athletic 1 - 2 Shefford Town & Campton

A NIGHT TO FORGET

After playing so well and beating a strong and in-form London Lions on Saturday we suffered a reality check 3 days later after losing at home to Shefford Town & Campton.

Our visitors have not been in the best of form having lost 7 of their last 8 games but on closer inspection many of those games were close and they certainly didn’t play like a struggling team. They put in a good performance, looked well organised and they worked hard to shut us down at every opportunity.

We started slowly and it took us a while to get into the game. We then started to get into some promising positions but lacked accuracy with our final passes. Chances were few in this game and although they didn’t have many attempts at goal we hardly tested their keeper much.

As a scrappy first half was coming to a close we gave away a soft penalty which Tom Cooksey converted to give his side a psychological advantage going in at half time. HT Score 0-1.

The second half continued in the same vein as the first and just past the hour mark we brought on Harrison Mead and Liam Smyth and it paid an immediate dividend. Harrison sent Harry Jones away down the right wing and his cross was rifled into the roof of the net by Liam Smyth to level the scores. Score 1-1.

This was just the shot in the arm we needed and we went in search of a winner but our opponents defended well and then regained the lead again in the 76th minute when we failed to deal with a long ball down the middle and the oppositions captain Sam Day headed home what turned out to be the winner. Score 1-2.

We kept going in desperation looking for an equaliser but Shefford were not going to let us back into the game easily and they were able to hold onto their lead and run out deserved winners. FT Score 1-2.

Congratulations to Shefford and we wish them all the best for the rest of the season. One sad note was the injury to Harrison Cornick joining Dave O'Connor on the injury list which may leave us short of centre backs. Hopefully they will be both fit again soon.

A disappointing result for us but we move on and welcome Arlesey Town on Saturday when hopefully we can get back on the winning trail again.

Team:

TA: Owen Brooks-Tonkin, Harry Jones, Harrison Cornick (Adam Sawyer 48), George Carbery (Capt), Greg Deer, Jack Harvey (Charlie Bradshaw 88), Harry Shepherd, Noah Butler (Harrison Mead 64), Max Hercules, Dan Kakembo (Liam Smyth 66), Frankie Hercules.

Scorers:

TA: Liam Smyth 67

ST&C: Tom Cooksley 43, Sam Day 76

Crowd: 73