Basic errors costly for Blues

Ringmer's Danny McLaughlin was back from suspension replacing Charlie Stagg, who has left to join Redhill.

The first goal came after 15 minutes and was reward for an early tactical switch by the Arundel manager which left Ringmer's defence hesitant over who to mark.

A free-kick from near the corner flag was cleared only as far as Arundel's Simon Clayton, who was unmarked some 25 yards from the Blues goal. His first-time strike carried too much power and precision for Matt May as it sped in via the underside of the bar.

This marked the start of a period of ascendancy for the Mullets which almost produced a second goal with May doing well to block a shot from Josh Sutcliffe.

Ringmer continued to struggle in the second half and the defence relied heavily on the ever-dependable Phil Elkins.

The home side doubled their lead when Ryan MacMillan and May hesitated to deal with an optimistic long through ball and this gave Clayton the chance to pounce and lift his shot over the advancing May.

Arundel now started to pull the Ringmer defence apart, with Clayton going close to scoring a third with a chip just over the crossbar. Then a poor headed clearance from MacMillan fell at the feet of top marksman Matt Huckett, who placed his snap shot well wide of May for Arundel's third goal of the game.

With ten minutes remaining Ringmer's first chance of the match saw Wayne Laycock shoot just wide from the edge of the penalty area. This launched a spell of sustained pressure from the Blues but they never managed to force the goalkeeper into a single save.

Ringmer: May, Matten, Evans, R MacMillan, P Elkins (Thomsett), Laycock, Koboah, Gedling (Johnson), Price (Beeston), Scerri, McLaughlin. Unused subs: King, Snell.

Ringmer's late penalty sickener - page 79