VICS 3 POINTS OFF PLAYOFFS AFTER 7-GOAL THRILLER AT BEATRICE AVENUE

Ji Nash scored a hattrick as Vics beat Ringwood Town by the best of 7 goals after twice falling behind. Manager Alex Smith (who became a father for the 2nd time this week) was forced to make several changes to the starting line up, with Raff Boyd-Kerr and Josh Neale unavailable and Brad Young, and Aedan Coode injured. In came Dan Johnson, James Turner, Isaac Glynn and Elliot Wheeler, who played his 1st game in a Vics shirt. Ringwood took the lead in the 7th minute: a cross into the Vics box appeared easy for Alex Ram to collect, but the keeper dropped the ball under pressure for Lee Vint to tap home for the New Forest side (0-1). Vics came close to equalizing in the 11th minutes when a curling Jez Conway effort was parried by Rogers, and Jacob Reynolds had his follow up blocked. A minute later, a well-placed effort from Harry Taylor nestled into the corner of the net, and the East Cowes side were back on level terms (1-1).

The Beatrice Avenue boys continued to harass the Ringwood defence with a looping effort by Jordan Chapman hitting the upright  in the 22nd minute. Vics keeper Ram made a spectacular save in the 26th minute, diving full stretch to deny Ethan Fishlock. The home side then took the lead in the 1st minute of injury time with a 20-yard curling effort from man-of-the-match Nash (2-1).

Half time: East Cowes Vics 2-1 Ringwood Town Vics  came close to extending their lead in the 46th minute when a Jez Conway cross picked out Jacob Reynolds, whose header was well saved by Rogers. However, Ringwood equalised in the 51st minute, after a ball into the box from Pat Correia was met by Ben Harris, who controlled the ball before blasting it past Ram (2-2). 3 minutes later, Harry Smith lobbed Ram to put Ringwood in front for the 2nd time in the game (2-3).

Falling behind galvanised Vics. Conway went clean through on the hour mark but blasted the ball over the crossbar. In the 64th minute, Vics got back on level terms when Ji Nash read a Josh Ridland back pass before rounding Ringwood keeper Rogers and directing the ball into the back of the net from a tight angle (3-3). 10 minutes later, Vics took the lead for the 2nd time in the game after a powerful run from Jacob Reynolds, whose cross across the goal mouth was hammered home by Nash for his hat trick (4-3).

Full time: East Cowes Vics 4-3 Ringwood Town East Cowes Vics: Ram, Snow, Yates, Newbold, Chase, Taylor (Wheeler), Reynolds (Mumford), Chapman, Marsek, Conway, Nash (Johnson) After the game, assistant manager Elliot Wheeler told Island Echo:

“The game could have gone either way. However, the team reacted well to some defensive errors. We dug in and got the win. “Last week (3-1 defeat to Verwood Town), we weren’t at the races.”

Victory for Vics leaves the East Cowes outfit 5th in Wessex Division 1, 3 points behind 5th-placed Cove. Both Cowes Sports and Newport (IoW) had their games postponed due to frozen pitches.