Saturday 27th July saw Tring play another friendly at the Grass Roots Stadium, this time against Northampton Chenecks. Unlike the heat earlier in the week, it was cooler and there was some light rain falling at the start of the match. The first 10 minutes were even between the two sides, both enjoying spells of possession but neither creating a real opening. The first shot on target came from the visitors, with their winger cutting inside and attempting to curl the ball past Charlie Mann. The shot took a deflection which almost caused Mann a problem, but he managed to hold on and recover to make the save.
Tring took the lead in the 26th minute with a nice team goal. Striker Chance Dash was played through with two defenders closing in on him. Dash turned inside, beating both defenders and passed to Dan Ferrigno who calmly put the ball in the bottom right hand corner from the penalty spot. The first goal gave Tring confidence, and they began to control the game, having most of the possession and pressing higher up the pitch. This was demonstrated when captain Max Mitchell closed down, and won the ball from a Northampton defender, however his shot was blocked away for a corner. There was a break in play after Tom Fletcher went down holding his groin, but he was ok to continue playing.
Tring doubled their lead in the 42nd minute after Rickman drove forward from midfield. He had options both left and right of him but carried on his run and his low shot went past the keeper and into the bottom left hand corner from twenty yards out. It seemed Tring would go into the break with a commanding 2-0 lead but in the 45th minute Northampton pulled a goal back, with a corner routine. The corner was taken to the back post, where it was headed back across goal and headed in from the six-yard box to put the Chenecks back into the match. The first half drama still wasnt finished as Chance Dash was sent to the sinbin for dissent towards the referee, meaning that Tring would start the opening 10 minutes of the second half down to 10 men.
With only 10 men on the pitch, Tring sat back for the start of the second half and let Northampton control the possession. However, they could not manage to take a good opportunity with Tring down to 10 men, but when Dash re-entered the pitch Northampton continued to control the game. A Cheneck corner caused havoc in the box but Tring eventually cleared and from the counter-attack Oram Swailes was played through and brilliantly rounded the Northampton keeper. However he could only find the side netting from a tight angle. Tring would soon rue this missed chance as Northampton made it 2-2 after a cross was met by one of their forwards and headed into the Tring goal.
The Northampton equaliser seemed to raise Trings game and Dash went close with a free kick that was deflected just wide. Northampton continued to look dangerous from crosses and set pieces and had a number of corners in a row, all of which were well defended by Tring. In the 75th minute the referee was forced to send another player to the sinbin but this time it was a Cheneck player. Unlike Northampton, Tring looked dangerous with the extra man and piled the pressure on looking to take the lead once again. After a corner was cleared, the ball was put back into the area and met by Joe Naylor with a bullet header off the crossbar and in to make it 3-2 to Tring. Even when Northampton were back to 11 men on the pitch, it was Tring who looked more like scoring and although they could not find a fourth goal, they closed out the game to give them a 3-2 win.

Report by Matthew Key

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