A very youthful Town side came in to the match without a win in 5 games, but on the back of a much improved performance at Selsey last week. They handed a debut to youngster Josh MaGrath making it 9 players 21 years old and under in the match day squad.

A decent sized crowd were treated to a game high on endeavour and passion , that swung end to end, but a very heavy pitch limited the number of chances at either end and at times hampered the passing games that both sides were trying to play.

Town were rapid out of the blocks, playing down the infamous Caburn slope. Townley had already gone close with a mazy dribble and low shot before he was hauled down 25 yards out. Skipper Levoi, playing up front for the second game in a row, delightfully curled home the free kick leaving the Ringmer keeper rooted to the spot.

The hosts came back hard at Town, and cleared pretty skilled at playing up the slope, with short neat passing out from the back often followed by drilled passes over the top for the wide men to run on to. On 9 minutes they were level, with Daniel drilling home from 12 yards, after a cross was only half cleared. Fitzpatrick handled on the line to try and stop the effort, and was shown a yellow for his efforts, which would have been a red had he successfully stopped the shot.

The game then ebbed and flowed from end to end, with Ringmer, and especially Rowe-Hurst looking dangerous on the attack. Ford was twice called in to action , once stopping a one on one, and on another occasion pulling of a quite stunning one handed fingertip stop to keep out a curling effort . At the other end Town created a fair amount of pressure, and had some dangerous set pieces, all of which came to nothing

HT 1-1

The second half continued in the dame vein, but lots of good energetic play and no shortage of passion, but the game low on clear cut chances. In fact it wasn’t until the 82nd minute that a clear cut chance came. Ringmer broke through the middle of the field and the Steyning defence, caught out of position for the first time in the afternoon, were absent as the midfielder ran through unopposed before squaring to an very offside looking Van Heel who sheepishly tapped home. Until this point Gainsford and Butler that been excellent at the heart of the defence, alongside Fitzpatrick and Clark who had also performed.

The Steyning players and management appealed in vain to a linesman who had been around 20 yards behind the play, but he deemed the player had come from behind the ball. A bitter pill to swallow for Town. They didn’t give up the ghost though and still have time to go close with a rasping 20 yard drive from Faber and a shot high and wide from a determine Townley who had just returned on to the pitch after being shoulder barged in to the home dugout.

The ref drew proceedings to a close and another defeat was confirmed for Town. A tough game against a resurgent Ringmer side who have beaten a number of top teams in recent weeks, and on another day we might have sneaked a point, but it wasn’t to be.

A week off next week before the team return to action against St Francis Fc on the 27th.

Team Darren Ford, Joe Fitzpatrick, Rob Clark, Scott Faber, Daniel Gainsford,Thomas Butler,Louis Pittock,Alec Scott, Lewis Levoi , Alex Townley, Joshua Magrath

Subs (all used) Tom Gannon Callum Towse, Joe Bartlett

MOM : Darren Ford