NO CHRISTMAS CHEER FOR THE BLUES WHO ARE NOW FIGHTING TO STAY OUT OF THE DROP ZONE.
Driving rain and a water sodden pitch did not make this match an enjoyable match to watch as any football skills were at a premium as the players tried to keep their feet in the slippery conditions.
Of course any Ringmer supporter knew that we would be disadvantaged straight away with these conditions and were not proved wrong in their early assumptions. A lot of stupid mistakes did not help the Blues cause though in which two of these led to goals for Lingfield. Being held in the bottom half a good deal of the first half, the defence and keeper Tom Rand dealt with a lot of early pressure from the Lingfield attacks but on 11 minutes Ringmer failed to clear a ball out with any precision and it was shot back in by Lingfields Harry Sintom, for the opening goal. Ringmer then had the odd chance the best coming 10 minutes later when Kieran Patel battled well for the ball and managed a cross to Marc Whiteman who found himself firing over an empty goal. A free kick taken by Glen Matten made the Lingfield goal area but was shot wide of the post. Then on 37 minutes Patel made the most of a messy clearance by Lingfield and tucked the ball in under the keeper from close range. 1-1. The rest of the half was squelched out with out any further score.
The second half was a good start by Ringmer and they had a few good chances early on but to no avail. Then the first warning that Ringmer should have taken notice of, after a back pass to keeper Rand, stuck in the mud forcing Rand to rush out of his area to clear the ball. Despite Lingfield going down to 10 men in the 65 th minute, Ringmer could not capitalize on the advantage, indeed at times of Ringmer attacks it seemed that Ringmer had the shortage of players after crosses went into a Blues free zone in the Lingfield box. The visitors then went ahead after scoring in the 72 nd minute after a free kick from the left to the near post was unchallenged and headed over Rand into the net for 1-2. Then on 88 minutes Rand’s day got even worse after he again had to charge out to a back pass that again got bogged down, alas unlike the other times he was beaten to the ball by Sintom who rounded the stranded keeper and walked the ball into the Blues goal, putting the game to rest.