Pagham 2^nd XI – 2 v 0 –Ringmer 2^nd XI

Reserve Premier Division

04/04/09

Match Report by Steve Frost

The Pagham pitch is generally aligned east west so that the prevailing gentle breeze blew in over the southwest corner flag, the sun shone brightly over the club house so that the dugouts are permanently in deep shadow. The pitch is flat and like many at this time of year, thinning and dry.

Ringmer have the kick off with the breeze towards the east. For the first ten minutes, neither side penetrates further than the edge of each others 18 yd area. The only highlight is when Louis B receives an unintentional kick to the head when he stooped to head a ball forward near the half way line. A further fifteen minutes passes before a Ringmer ball breaks into the Pagham box, Tom blocks the attempted clearance, the ball falls towards the left for Louis M to strike first time but the effort passes left of the Pagham goal. Ringmer generally have the better play at this time. On 35 minutes, Neil brings the ball down in midfield whilst in the Ringmer half of the centre circle; he turns neatly and flicks the ball over the Pagham defence to find Louis B who has continued his forward foray into the Pagham box unfortunately lifting the ball high over the Pagham goal. On 40 minutes, Ben W finds Jessie unmarked out on the right, Jessie takes the ball forward into the 18yd box and shoots across the goal for the shot to go just wide of the Pagham upright. Shortly after, Ringmer have a free kick which results with the ball bouncing around the Pagham defence like a pin ball, it eventually pops out and finds Jamie waiting just outside the 18 yd box, and his firmly driven shot is turned over by the Pagham keeper. Immediately before the half time whistle Ben’s route one ball finds Tom in a one to one with the Pagham keeper unfortunately the keeper collects the ball for both teams to go in with honours even.

During the break the south-westerly breeze stiffens to favour Pagham as the second half begins with Ringmer unchanged. Five minutes in to the restart Joe launches a long ball down the right which Jessie takes towards the corner flag where he is brought down. Unfortunately the resulting free kick fizzles out with Jamie unable to get his shot away. On the 60 minute mark, another long ball from Joe down the right finds Tom who wins a corner which when taken results in no opportunity for Ringmer to capitalise.

On 63 minutes, Pagham make a double substitution with both players moving into forward roles. Ringmer dropped their concentration during these substitutions because the next thing they knew Pagham had put the ball in the Ringmer net (1-0). Before the restart Ringmer bring on Andy Smith for Neil in a direct swap. This is immediately followed by Pagham putting the ball in the Ringmer net, this time to be ruled offside. During the next ten minutes Ringmer try to counter a number of times but the final ball or the distribution collapses. On 75 minutes Ringmer bring on Rob for Jamie, Andy moves back into midfield.

Rob soon has a couple of shots from the edge of the 18 area but they were both blocked. 5 minutes later Ringmer fail to clear the ball from the 18 yd area and are immediately punished as Pagham stick the ball in the Ringmer net (2-0). During the added time Ringmer win a couple of corners earned by pressurising the Pagham defence however nothing comes from either.

On the balance of play Pagham just edged the game as Ringmer rarely tested the Pagham keeper and they then lost concentration to allow Pagham the opportunities to score.

No	PLAYER	GOALS	OThER
1	Ben Woodall	.	GK
2	Joe McTiffen	.	.
3	Louis Brown	.	.
4	Ben Robertson	.	.
5	Simon Creighton
6	Jesse Stonell	.
7	Jamie Gray	..
8	Kiefer Ardaen-Webb		(C)
9	Tom O'Donnell	.	.
10	Neil Grant	.	.
11	Louis Munnery	.	.
SUBSTITUTES
12	Andy Smith	.	On for N Grant (60)
14	Rob Frost	.	On for J Gray (75)
15	Ben Courtnage	.	Not Used
16		.	Not Used
17	.	.	Not Used
OFF FIELD
Manager		Geoff McTiffin
Assistant		Neil Barrett
Sports Therapist		.
OFFICIALS
Referee		Paul Gaffney
Club Linesman (R)		Lee Cramp
Assistant 2		N/K
Fourth Official		N/A
Attendance		N/A