After two successive league defeats, Fletching hosted title favorites AFC Ringmer, who had been knocked out of the cup by the Archers only a month previously. Neil Lucey returned from a week lay off on the sidelines and partnered Burchett up front, as Powell dropped to The Reserves along with Mike Cronin who was in need of some match practice. Paul Rider was still out with his knee injury, as ‘Sheepy’ Cork came back into the front side starting on the bench with captain Jamie Funnell who was suffering from a serious case of man-flu!

It was the visitors who set the pace early on with some crisp, neat passing as they looked to avenge their Edgar German cup exit, and came close a couple of times with Callow in particular seemingly very dangerous up front. Fletching struggled at times to get into the game, giving the ball away far too cheaply and easily at every opportunity when in good possession. Duff and Roberts were the main outlets wide, but even this route was stubbed out by a finely controlled and hard working AFC back line and no notable chances were created. The hosts were also finding a very troublesome low sun shining right into their eyes testing, which made it almost impossible to see their strikers, at least it cut out their aberrant long ball game from the previous week.

Ringmer enjoyed the majority of possession, and broke the deadlock half an hour in after Bradford was caught in possession. Callow hit an unstoppable pile driver from all of thirty yards which dipped and swerved in the sun leaving Phillips with absolutely no chance. Worse was to follow ten minutes later, when AFC easily won the aerial battle from a long goal kick, putting it straight through to Callow, who took advantage of an Archers defence who were slow to clear their lines, making no mistake once one-on-one.

The Villagers rallied before half time, Hyland looking to create something out of nothing with those mystical feet of his, slotting in Greg Roberts whose effort went close. Shortly after Fletching had their best chance of the game so far when a ball into the danger area found Lucey, whose well guided header shook the cross bar, before being scrambled away to safety. Two down at the break.

Like so often this season it took until the second half and to be behind in the game for The Archers to buck up their ideas and start playing. Hyland’s men came out in the second half in far more positive mood, looking to play the football they are capable of and for the first real time in the match began to cause their opponents some problems. The effervescent ‘Pip’ Holford was having an inspired game at right back, linking up well with Duff in front of him and Hyland on the inside as The Villagers pegged AFC onto the back foot. Wolvey too, began to impose himself after a relatively quite first period for the big man, winning everything in the air against the notable Linstrem, as Fletching were now finding the feet of the forward runs of Burchett and Lucey.

The hosts were handed a lifeline fifteen minutes in thanks to Greg Roberts with his second in as successive games. Holford found Lucey whose shot was deflected, seemingly going wide, before Roberts reacted the quickest to poke home a sliding attempt from a tight angle.

Fletching were now very much in the ascendancy and it was the turn of the usually composed and confident visitors to give the ball away when in possession. The turning point came only minutes after, when Roberts turned his man with ease and was about to pull the trigger but was hacked down in what was a cynical challenge from the side. The winger went down in agony and had to be attended to, the visiting player lucky not to see a second yellow card, as the game was held up for ten minutes.

Unfortunately by the time the game had restarted, Fletching had lost all their impetus, but continued to push, leaving gaps at the back which the visitors took advantage off. Ringmer effectively killed the game off with a little over ten minutes remaining after Linstrem broke into the box and was brought down by Neil ‘Nails’ Bradford. Callow stepped up to take the kick, looking to complete his hat trick, but Minty Philips, in his last game for the club made a great one handed save, however the visitors reacted quicker and the resulting rebound was put in to seal the victory.

View From The Dancefloor with Billy Elliot (a.k.a Chris Hyland)

This was another frustrating performance from the Archers as we gave Ringmer too much respect in the first half and were duly punished for it. In the second half we were a different team, playing some very good football and causing AFC some real problems, but we had left ourselves too much to do from the first forty-five and ended up loosing out. We are learning all the time in this league, it is obvious that there is very little margin for error, and it is vital that you get at teams early. Hopefully we can do that over the Christmas period with some important league games coming up. Next week we have a real selection problem in the Mowatt Cup against division two opposition Franklands Village, with midfielders Rider, Roberts, Hyland & Wolvey all unavailable, but with it being a cup game so we have nothing to loose, so let’s get at them early and anything can happen.

Team: Phillips, Holford, Dann (Cork), Bradford, Barbe, Duff, Wolvey, Hyland, Roberts (Funnell), Lucey, Burchett.