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| Saturday 08 April 2006 AFC Ringmer 3 East Court 1 AFC Ringmer secured the Mid Sussex Football League division 4 title with a 3-1 victory over third placed East Court. Despite going a goal down in the first half Ringmer hit back to lead 3-1 at the interval and perhaps should've extended their lead in the second half. East Court recalled Billy Denyer to the starting eleven after last weekend's victory over Wealden III with Adam Shillibeer dropping to the bench. And it was the visitors who started the more brightly as the opening exchanges followed a familiar pattern, in both previous encounters this season it was East Court who dominated the early proceedings. The home side were struggling to match the intensity of the visiting team and it was no surpise when the league's top scorer Denyer put East Court in front. East Court broke down the left hand side and Carl Buckler's attempted cutback from the by-line took a deflection across goal where Denyer was on hand to sweep the ball high into the roof of the net. East Court continued to take the game to their hosts gradually the league leaders came back into the game and got a fortunate equaliser. East Court failed to clear their lines and the ball was crossed in from the left hand side and Simon Nickols' attempted clearance spun into the bottom corner of the goal. East Court had an opportunity to retake the lead when Ross Kelly headed over when well placed from a long throw before Ringmer scored twice in quick succession. The first came when East Court cleared a corner but failed to pick up the Ringmer attackers as they pushed out. The ball was lifted back in behind the backline and as keeper Dan Lamprell came out it held up in the wind and Chris Callow was on hand to fire the ball home. Soon after a deflected shot from the edge of the area wrong-footed Lamprell and it was 3-1. Kicking into the wind in the second half East Court never really got going and only some dogged last-ditch defending kept the score to 3-1. Lamprell had to be alert to push a dangerous shot onto the post with Andy Wright reacting first to the rebound and Nickols made amends for his earlier mistake when he slid in to block a shot after Lamprell had been rounded. At the other end the closest East Court came was a Nickols header from a right wing corner which flew over the crossbar. While East Court could feel justifiably unlucky to trail at the break the champions were well on top and deserving of the points in the second half. With two games remaining East Court are still in with a chance of finishing in the second promotion spot but are now relying on Fletching to drop points against either AFC Ringmer or Dormansland Rockets in their remaining games. Team: D.Lamprell, A.Wright, N.Palmer, R.Hayes, D.Medcalf (A.Shillibeer), S.Nickols, B.Sunderland, L.Champion, R.Kelly, B.Denyer, C.Buckler. Unused Sub: P.Bishop |