Ringmer lost their 100% home record and blew their chances of being named ‘team of the month’ as a poor second half performance saw them beaten by St Francis Rangers.
The Blues pre-match plans suffered a double blow with goalkeeper Joe Adams failing an early fitness test and Joe Dryer pulling out of the starting line-up in the warm-up. The match was played at a frenetic pace throughout with both sides playing one touch football in an effort to carve openings for their lively strikers. For Ringmer Jo Jo Tubon looked dangerous every time he beat the offside trap and it was fitting that he should be the one to open the scoring after thirty minutes with a close range effort. The visitors hit back immediately only for their goal to be ruled out for offside and it was just a minute later when Ryan MacMillan’s lob into the penalty area was converted by Jayson Sowter to give the Blues a 2-0 lead at half-time.
Ten minutes into the second half Dave Philp, deputising for Adams in the Ringmer goal, pushing a free-kick away but when the ball came back into the box Tom Djhaluddin was on hand at the far post to nod home. Ten minutes later the visitors levelled the scores when a cross from Chris Maynard eluded everyone in a congested penalty area and crept into the bottom corner of the net. From this point on there only looked to be one side likely to win the game and sadly it was not Ringmer as they lost both the mid-field battle and their rhythm. Sam Jeremiah could have scored a hat-trick before Maynard put the Rangers ahead with six minutes left to play. Four minutes later Maynard turned provider as he cut the ball back from the bye line for Phil Gault to fire into an empty net with Philp stranded out of his goal. There was still a glimmer of hope for the Blues in stoppage time when a flying header by MacMillan flashed across the goal and when the goalkeeper did well to punch away a shot from Simon Greatwich.