Thank Goodness That is Over

That is how it seemed to the onlooker with too many North End players just going through the motions with Ringwood looking more up for the game.   After a glorious defeat on Monday verses Cove it was going to be difficult for North End to play with the same high intensity.  They looked a very tired side with many players playing for their Sunday teams in between which is ridiculous, it begs the question that if we are going to be serious about winning something next year players don’t play Sunday football.

With Ringwood still chasing a promotion place they soon got a grip of this game, immediately pushing North End back into their own half and that for the first forty five minutes is where most of the action was played.  In recent weeks what has been impressive is the way North End have taken the game to their opponents, playing higher up the field.  It seemed that North End were content to sit on the edge of their own box, with no pressure on the away sides back four or midfield Ringwood pushed forward with ease and were able play balls into the home sides box without any difficulty, it was a miracle they didn’t score.

The start of the second half saw North End have their best period of the game, pinning Ringwood back in their own half, the home side created a couple of good chances and for the first time in the game the Ringwood keeper managed to get his knees dirty.  Within ten minutes of the restart after North End’s little flurry was over and Ringwood took over where they left off in the first half completely dominating the game.  On 63 minutes Ringwood scored their first goal, the second came on 78 minutes and a cracking strike on 83 minutes finished a very satisfying night for the away side.

North End were very poor this evening, missing Manager Brooks himself who has been outstanding up front.  Brooks takes so much pressure off our defence as he is an easy target to hit from deep and he holds the ball up so well bringing the midfield into play. Enabling our defence to get forward, especially our fullbacks with Newcombe who is so dangerous on the left particularly against Cove not even making one single cross this evening..  With Millington-Lea and Stevens also absent North End just looked a bit light weight, not really giving a good account of themselves which was disappointing as it was the last game of the season.  It is worth noting though for all Ringwood’s dominance they didn’t actually score until the old war donkey centre half Mark Warnock came off with an injury or fatigue, which is not surprising as he had played 5 games in 8 days.

Due to an unusually busy end of season we have decided to put the end of season bash back to Saturday 12th June the day England play their first World Cup game.  Proceedings will start in the afternoon with a 5 a side competition and BBQ.  Players to start putting your teams together, but each team must include a committee member and a female partner in the squad of 6. After the fun we will watch the game and make the presentations. Let Brooks, Goble or Xebi know if you can or can not make it