Tring Corinthians

Tring Corinthians 0 Crawley Town 0

Corinthians denied by keeper heroics

Going into this first of the season encounter, Corinthians were riding on the crest of a pre-season wave confident they could beat anything put in front of them. And so it was as Corinthians launched themselves at Green from the off tearing into their defence at will. On 2 minutes Ashley Higgins raced clear of the defence to find himself one on one with the keeper only to scuff his shot wide into the crowd. Then on 5 minutes Luke Byrne latched onto a Rose through ball drove into the box and fired a shot inches wide of the right upright.  For the remainder of the half Corinthians continued to test the keeper with no success, as time after time, the Crawley shot-stopper proved equal to anything the tireless Corinthians threw at them. All the while Coker had nothing to do but kick immaculately and the backline particularly Smith remained impenetrable.

The second half, and again Corinthians dominated the early stages, Steve Lewis having beaten his opposite man on numerous occasions was also finding the keeper equal to his deadly crossing. On 60 minutes Parrett introduced Jonny Montgomery for his first competitive debut and instantly made an impact sliding in Herring who averted the on-rushing keeper side stepped past him and shot into the empty net only to find it cleared by a recovering defender. Corinthians were queuing up to score and on 75 minutes Higgins found himself on the edge of the box and with a swing of his right foot fired a curling shot that was heading  for the top right of the net – the Corinthians bench were on their feet  but a world-class save from the keeper tipped the ball onto the bar to thwart Corinthians again. On 82 minutes it appeared as though Corinthians had made the breakthrough as Lewis once again beat his man to put an unplayable delivery across the near post which Montgomery got on the end of and  steered toward the bottom of the net – but from nowhere the heroic Green keeper tipped the ball around the post – a truly magnificent save.  In the closing stages Corinthians saw several more chances cleared off the line before the whistle blew to signal the end of an exhilarating if one-sided encounter.

Parrett had this to say after a frustrating 90 minutes…

“What can I say? Our defence was solid, we created numerous chances and our keeper had nothing to do. This side finished 3rd last season but there was only one team in it. I tell you what, if any keeper can beat that display from there’s today I’ll be straight on the phone to Steve Mclaren – he was unbeatable. If we play like that on Saturday coming – I’ll have no complaints! Lets write this one off as a freak result – their keeper was that good today- man of the match!”