Square Rangers 2 Memorial
Park 1
Thursday 10th April 2008
South Beds Saturday League U13
Square Rangers continued their extraordinary run with a hard fought
win in this extremely tight battle between the top two teams in
the league.
Before the match the boys had heard of the untimely and sad death
of their friend’s brother at the age of 19, the decision of
the whole team then was to play the game as a tribute to the young
man Sam Coleman.
Clearly from the opening exchanges there looked to be nothing between
the two teams as the game flowed from end to end but with neither
team really testing the opposition’s goalkeeper. Midway through
the half with Square Rangers slightly on top they got the important
opening goal after some really good work by Joe down the right that
resulted in a clever chip to the back post. The cross was met by
the unfortunate Memorial defender facing the wrong way to divert
the ball into the back of the net. Some solid defending from both
sides brought little goal mouth action for the remainder of the
half as Square Rangers gladly went into the break with the advantage.
The second half was just as close but the fact that Memorial desperately
needed a goal to help their title aspirations the game seemed to
open up. Josh, at the heart of the Rangers back four was having
an awesome evening as time after time his bursting pace made up
ground to make timely challenges on the Memorial attackers bearing
on goal. However suddenly a switch in the opposition’s formation
found us outnumbered at the back and from a swift move with the
advantage played from what looked like a foul the spare attacker
tucked the chance away to equalise the score at 1-1. At that time
the draw seemed to favour Memorial more than Square Rangers, so
it needed one last big effort from Rangers. With just 3 minutes
remaining the match finished in dramatic fashion for Rangers as
a loose ball was met brilliantly by Jack to smash home brilliantly
into the bottom left hand corner to give Square Rangers those important
two points that keeps them at the top of the league with just one
game to go.
Player of the Match:
An outstanding display
of defending - Josh Skelcey
Summary:
This was a tough match
against a very good side who use their strengths well, such that
they presented us with quite a challenge. However it was fitting
that the boys’ spirit before the game was that of determination
to pay tribute to Sam, I am sure that through this they were able
to draw upon from their performance, inspiration, belief, character
and courage. This was a wonderful gesture from the team and on behalf
of Square Rangers our thoughts and sympathies go to Sam’s
family at this sad time.
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