Square Rangers 2 Barton
Rovers A 1
Saturday 3rd November
2007
Square Rangers celebrated
their first league win of the season and their first triumph over
Barton Rovers in five attempts after another tense and absorbing
encounter.
There was little difference between the two teams throughout the
match and so the game looked destined to be swung by small incidents
or how the teams played to the conditions, a distinct slope and
noticeably long and thick grass down the flanks. One key incident
came inside the first ten minutes when Barton Rovers were awarded
a penalty after Louis had taken down their striker inside the penalty
area. Ryan came to the rescue and kept up his 100% penalty save
ratio by palming the ball wide for a corner. The rest of the half
saw both sides engaged in a very tight midfield battle with very
little time and space being given by either side, but Jack, Spencer,
Joe and Tom proved more than a match for their counterparts and
this set up an interesting second half with the game evenly balanced
at 0-0.
Peter and Johnny have built up a good attacking partnership and
their work rate and ability to play off each other proved crucial
to the success the team had in the second half. In fact it was through
an excellent move down the left and a super pass by Peter that put
Johnny through on goal that led to Square Rangers first goal, all
credit to Johnny for showing a cool head to beat the goalkeeper.
Barton Rovers did come back and going into the last quarter managed
to get behind the Rangers defence and duly equalised to set up another
tense, grandstand finish. The compact midfield area evident in the
first half seemed now more stretched and this suited Rangers better
as Jack and Spencer began to dominate the central area. Johnny and
Peter capitalised well on the space they were now given and put
the visitors defence under some good, late pressure. Rangers grabbed
a deserved winner when Johnny’s excellent corner was only
half cleared and Jake reacted quickest to fire home in off a defender.
The last few minutes saw Rangers hold off any late pressure thanks
to some good defending, where Nathan, Afsar, William, Louis and
Stewart are developing into a quite effective unit.
Summary:
As said earlier it was
a match that could easily have swung on the smallest of incidents
therefore Rangers should be applauded for their levels of concentration
and application in never giving much away to the opposition. These
tight matches, our fourth in a row have certainly developed the
team, and as this was only our third league match it promises to
be a very exciting and close fought league this season.
Player of the match:
Grew in stature and maturity
under intense pressure at times - Nathan Berry
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