No Love for falling Star

Chipperfield 3 Elliott Star 0

Herts Senior League

Defender Stuart Love was sent off as Star's goal-scoring heroics came to a dramatic halt away to Chipperfield on Saturday.

Star, the top scorers in the league, suffered a rare loss of form in front of goal but manager Brian Renphrey was not concerned with his side's failure to find the back of the net.

"It doesn't worry me that we haven't been able to score as regularly as we were at the start of the season," he said.

"The scoreline flattered Chipperfield as this was a one-sided game that we totally dominated, despite the loss of Love."

Love was red-carded following a foul in the penalty area and Chipperfield bagged the spot kick to go 2-0 up.

Added Renphrey: "I didn't see the incident because I was following the ball, but he jumped with his arms up."

A depleted Star side, missing key players Marc Dalli and Micky Fenton, started well enough and a solid backline was rarely troubled.

However, just before half time Chipperfield were gifted the opener.

The ball was whipped over from the left and the nippy right winger thundered in a shot from close range.

Worse was to follow with the dismissal of Love, but to their credit Star battled back and had chances to get back into the game.

The Star players reverted to long-ball tactics in an attempt to chase the game, and the woodwork denied them a goal.

Terry Chaney came on for the injured Danny Wicks with 20 minutes to go and livened Star's attack.

But with Star pressing forward, it was odds-on that Chipperfield would catch them on the break and that was just what they did three minutes from time.

Said Renphrey: "Once we were down to ten men, we decided that we may as well lose 3-0, rather than 1-0.

"We knew the game didn't really mean anything so we pushed up, leaving one against four at the back."

Renphrey faces a tough task in transforming his side into championship challengers next season but he is looking forward to the task.

"I can see that there are some good quality players at this club and I'll be bringing in a few players in the summer," he said. "We've promoted a number of promising youngsters from the reserves to first-team duty, and I'm looking to build a strong squad."

Star are away to Sandridge this Saturday.

STAR: Sandford, Wicks (Chaney), Kalouis, Day, Love, Plumb, Talbot, Agombar, Jones, Reid, Cooper (Weller). Sub (not used): Renphrey.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.