Tring Corinthians 1-2 New Bradwell St. Peter

The home side start with a defeat but the performance did not merit such a result.

Andy Hockley's side started with just 5 players who had featured in the season opener the season before, showing the amount of changes the squad has gone through since the beginning of Hockley's reign. Players move on and new players arrive, this is step 7 football!

It feels like Hockley has had to start again and rebuild a brand new side. Tring have retained players such as Jake Plumridge, Toby Bennett, Ben Jenkins, Corey Flynn, Daniel Hill, Matthew Hatt and Liam Batchelor Morgan, with the latter still out injured.

There were debuts for new GK Alex Sykes, Callum Nevin, Jack Vaughan, Josh Sawer, Ryan Curtis, Jacob Hutchinson, Harry Lunnon and Dan Imbach. Sam Lomas, Tom Banks, Luke Roberts and Gabriel Mitilelu were all unavailable.

These opening games are always unpredictable. New Bradwell will be one of the favourites for the league this season following a good "last season" and successful Spring Cup competition.

The away side started brightly, having a fair share of the possession but without troubling the home side. This was a game of very few clear cut chances with both defences coming out on top. The first goal came on 36 minutes when Corey Flynn pounced on a defensive slip and he laid the ball to Matthew Hatt and the striker unleashed a right foot shot past the visiting keeper.

H/T: Tring Corinthians 1-0 New Bradwell St. Peter

The second half began and the visitors hit the ground running after half-time. They looked sharper and pressed the home side, trying to force errors but the home side withstood the pressure until the 50th minute when the winger Elton Enning ran down the left hand side and turned back inside towards the middle of the area and fired a shot past the debutant Sykes into the bottom left hand corner. It was a superb effort.

The away side looked to build on the equaliser and they got a stroke of luck with a touch of class with their eventual winner. The ball bounced off Ben Jenkins and fell to Conor Webb who volleyed into the left hand side netting, guiding the ball past Sykes in the goal. A superb intuitive finish.

Tring got themselves back together, bringing on Striker Liam Burnett to add some physicality up top and Burnett was in the thick of the action linking with Matthew Hatt with 15 minutes to go, playing Hatt through one on one, Hatt saw his first shot well saved by the keeper and his follow up strike was blocked on the line by the experienced defender. How did the home side not score?

Ben Jenkins and Toby Bennett went close again for the home side but away side eventually took all 3 points away from Icknield Way.

F/T: Tring Corinthians 1-2 New Bradwell St. Peter

A word from the dugout..

Head Coach Jamie Roberts said "Obviously we are disappointed we didn't get anything from this opening game and it being at home but we were really happy with the players application and overall performance. I told them, this is football, sometimes you do not always get what you deserve and I felt we deserved a point today in a game of very few clear cut chances for both sides.

We will work on some things in training that I picked up on and go again at home to another strong outfit in Berkhamsted Comrades. There is another 29 games to go, it is very early days right now and considering ONLY 3 players who had started the opening game of last season started today, shows the mass changes in the squad from the previous season, it feels like we are starting all over again, it will take some time. We just got beat by two outstanding goals today, end of!"