With a rapid improvement in the weather Tring Athletic Reserves were able to host their first home Premier Division game since Jan 13th.

We started with an attacking pacy front 3 with James Shaw, who had a good shot saved on 25 mins, hopefully pulling the strings in midfield. In general for the first 15 mins we started brightly forcing a number of corners and dealing fairly comfortably with our opponents attacks. As the half progressed Uxbridge came into the game and were unfortunate not to take the lead from a far post corner.

Our front 3 were on occasion too far apart and we were guilty of forcing too many passes.

However on 42 minutes a Nick Holden free kick hit into a good channel resulted in Teddie Paul taking an excellent first touch, cutting in and laying the ball off for Gareth Terblanche to strike home. Score 1-0.

Playing down the slope in the second half we hoped to cement our lead but the half was generally frenetic with Uxbridge relying on a longer ball game and we were never sufficiently on top to impose ourselves.

After the break we were a touch unlucky not to stretch our lead. Ironically Uxbridge got what was based on the 90 mins a deserved equaliser after 53 mins with a quick break and tidy finish. Score 1-1.

For 15 mins we were then knocked out of our stride but defended well and slowly began to turn the tables and could well have got a late winner from one of several Tom Shaw crosses.

On the plus side James Byerley and especially Teddie Paul both from our Under 18 team were comfortable and Ross Hazel showed with a late 20 min cameo that he is adapting to Senior Football.

The defence was solid with George Tomlin looking accomplished whilst full backs Nick Holden and Gareth Terblanche had their best games of the season. Up front Joe Naylor worked hard without too much support .

We look forward to the return fixture next Monday 26/03 and this point at least lifted us off the bottom of the table with plenty of games in hand.

Team: M.Richardson. N.Holden, G.Tomlin, J.Byerley, G.Terblanche
R.McMahon (R.Hazel).J.Shaw (R.Zekri) ,T.Paul. L.Gorman (O.Ruttle), J.Naylor, T.Shaw.

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