The knockout first-half performance of a well-structured Ringmer side turned out to be in vain as league leaders Little Common, with the aid of some dubious officials, overturned a testing deficit to deny the Blues valuable points, reports Will Hugall.

Sporting just the two changes from their abandoned trip to Oakwood last week, in which they had been 3-0 down, Ringmer returned to action with Robbie Frost making his first appearance since early October in place of Steve Jackson, and Ryan Collins making way for under-18’s centre-back Ben Evans. With Luke Donaldson pushing up to partner Jack Webber up front, Ash Bailey switched to a counter-attacking 4-4-2 formation in attempt to exploit the tendencies of the leaders.

Just five minutes into the game, Donaldson threatened the first serious chance as he burst into the Common box, before tumbling under a challenge from George Aston, to which referee responded by flashing the striker a yellow card. Followed up a matter of minutes later by Webber’s tame strike into the palms of a grateful Matt Cruttwell when set clean through, the Blues’ early dominance was being hammered home. In the 10th minute, a mazy run from Donaldson from the right, taking the initiative from Webber’s pass, eked out a late tackle from Dan Cruikshank on the very edge of the penalty area, giving Moore no choice but to point to the spot. With Donaldson stepping up, he stroked the ball into the bottom corner, with Cruttwell guessing correctly to his left, but outfoxed by a bobble in the pitch as it flew over him.

Soon seeing another chance pass up as Donaldson’s low effort on the edge of the 18-yard box was stopped only by Cruttwell’s shins, the Blues, compiling a fantastic opening 20 minutes, were compelled not to waste another opportunity. Accordingly, in the 19th minute, a flick on by Donaldson from a Hutchins goal kick was enough to set Webber through for a familiar one-on-one with Cruttwell, taking a last vital touch to change the angle of approach, and roll in past the stricken goalkeeper.

Finally growing into their reputation as league leaders, the Green Lane Boys hit back as the clock ticked over the half hour mark, with Russell Eldridge’s free kick striking Dan Hutchins’ post and captain/club legend Lewis Hole flicking another set-piece just wide of the goal. Despite this, the first half was all still about Ringmer’s strike partnership, with the home side’s midfield four also now rising to prominence.

Due to the considerably more rigid shape of two defensive lines employed by Bailey, the frustration of the away side was compounded by the fact that their forwards were devoid of space in which to unleash any of their clear attacking quality, their possession effectively worthless in the face of an impregnable defence, which vitally held out to the half way point of the match.

Returning from the dressing rooms to an uneventful first five minutes, Frost was soon withdrawn by Bailey on account of his long-term injury lay-off, replaced with Brandon Morley in a more defensive-minded change. In the 58th minute, however, this more restricted outlook possibly backfired, as after the referee gave in to the pressure of away players following Tom Shelley’s tackle on thin air, allowing Eldridge to also unjustly take the set-piece quickly with a number of Ringmer players still less than 10 yards away, the inevitable result came as Cruikshank slammed the ball into the top corner when unmarked six yards out.

Common’s equalizer, just three minutes after their first, was also led on by a shambles of officiating, with the linesman failing to spot a clearly offside Lewis Hole, set through in the middle to take on Hutchins and unsurprisingly fire in low, doubling the Ringmer disbelief. Completing a farcical comeback which disjointed the Ringmer ranks in the space of just eight minutes, Hole doubled his tally in the 64th minute as he belted in a low volley from Eldridge’s smart corner, typically clinical of one of the top scorers in the division.

Forced into attacking substitutions and, consequently, ragged defending into the final 20 minutes, nothing seemed to give for the hard-done-by Blues, with Donaldson’s shot, which forced Cruttwell into a spill almost into the path of Webber, representing the best chance of the final period, the game concluding in far contrasting circumstances to those just an hour previous.

After experiencing such a gut-wrenching defeat by little fault of their own, the Blues return to action hopefully in the ilk of their outstanding first-half thrashing of the table toppers in two weeks’ time – hosting Southwick at 3PM on the 28th January.

Ringmer: Hutchins, Simpson, Thomsett (C), Evans, Thompson (Barnes, 85 mins), Stracey, Frost (Morley, 51 mins), Shelley, Webber, Donaldson, Kirk-Patrick (Barlow, 73 mins)

Subs not used: Middleton, Milburn

Ringmer Football Club

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