Perhaps Ringmer should ask to play all their games on a Saturday. For the second successive Tuesday the Blues contrived to throw away a half-time lead and ended up as the losing side.
Ringmer had the bulk of the possession in the first half and restricted the visitors to only rare excursions into the home penalty area. A superb flowing passing movement out of defence involving Joe Dryer and Kieran Patel on opposite flanks set up a fourth minute chance for Jayson Sowter but his shot went straight into the hands of goalkeeper Glen Jenner. This set the tone for the half with Ringmer creating a host of scoring chances. The Blues duly took the lead after nineteen minutes when a cross from Will Broomfield was met unopposed by Joe Dryer who headed home at the far post. The Stringers responded almost immediately when a long ball out of defence put Scott MacDonald clear to go one on one with Ringmer’s reserve goalkeeper Dave Philp and although MacDonald miscued his shot it had just sufficient momentum to creep over the line ahead of Ryan MacMillan’s despairing attempt to clear. Jo Jo Tubon soon regained the lead for the Blues with a well placed header after a long corner was directed back into the goalmouth. Minutes later a pile driver of a shot from well outside the penalty area by Dryer saw Jenner make a flying save to turn the ball away for a corner when a goal appeared certain.
The second half was a scrappy affair with the Stringers making a real battle of it as they fought to deny the Blues the space to play their normal quick passing game. Sam Sowter, on in place of Tubon, saw his header from a corner rebound to safety off the crossbar. At the other end Philp made an acrobatic save to tip over a shot from Sam Col but Philp was unable to stop MacDonald levelling the scores when he lost the race to a long through ball. By then Hailsham were in command and although Sam Sowter was unlucky to see his shot go inches wide of the goal it looked increasingly likely that the visitors would emerge the victors. The last fifteen minutes saw a flurry of yellow cards for both sides as the tension mounted until in the eighty ninth minutes when the Stringers scored the winner. K O’Riley had his first shot blocked by Philip but as the ball came back in his direction O’Riley managed to squeeze the ball into the net.