Saturday was a day of disappointment for the Sun as they were knocked out of the Herts Intermediate Cup in the first round by Tring Athletic Reserves.
The Sun just didn’t seem to turn up for the first half an hour of the match and that was when Tring took full advantage by scoring three goals against a flimsy defence.
But it could have been a lot worse as Tring also had a goal disallowed for offside before the second and third goals went in.
With a disastrous start like that, it seemed to evoke memories of the 7-1 defeat by Kings Langley back in the “bad old days” when the Sun were one of the worst of the SSML Divison One sides.
Tring continued to press forward and could have added another two to their total, but for a header going over the bar and a shot being stopped well by Sun keeper Luke Furlong as he dived to his left to stop the ball.
Callum Tobin, the two goal hero of the Under 18’s win on Thursday night, beat his marker well and hit the Sun’s first decent shot of the game at around 35 minutes, which was safely gobbled up by the Tring keeper.
Another youth player, Olamide Emiloju, then broke down the right, beat two Tring defenders and then coolly slipped the ball under the Tring keeper to give a bit of pride back to the Sun before half time.
Another right sided attack down the right by Olamide was pulled back to Josh Squires-Adams who managed to pass the ball to Callum whose shot was deflected off a Tring defender and was saved courtesy of the Tring keeper’s reflexes.
In the second half Sun fought to get a quick goal back from the start and George Hobson was soon in action with a direct free kick which went narrowly past the post.
Deji Ikusemori (or was it “Ben Cummings” – Deji’s psuedonym that he gave to the ref when booked) had the chance from a corner to head the ball in but his header went up instead of down in the six yard area.
The Sun were soon rewarded for their pressure when a George Hobson corner kick floated over the Tring goalie and into the back of the net, the perfect birthday present for his granddad who was watching the match!
Now the comeback was on!!
Well it should have been and probably would have been if it wasn’t for the Tring official running the line, flagging for offside when there was no chance that it could have been on numerous occasions, and despite the many protestations from the Sun players, the referee would not change the linesman.
Which makes you wonder if, especially for County Cup matches, that qualified assistants should be made essential to avoid such discrepancies in important matches like cup competitions.
But Tring soaked up the pressure and went on the counter and nearly went further ahead but the shot was dragged wide of the far post.
From another Hobson corner a header from Josh S-A was headed down but cleared off the line from the opposition defence.
The Sun continued to press the Tring defence and frustration grew as time grew shorter, a goal bound Deji header hit another Sun player and was cleared for a corner and Luke Furlong came up for the last chance saloon but didn’t have a chance to get to the ball as the other keeper held onto it.
And so time ran out on another chance of cup glory for Sun Sports.