The home supporters turned up at Awakeri on Saturday to see if Gary Fowell Builders could make up for a poor outing against Tauranga City United in the first round, and also to see if Rangers' winning streak would continue.
Thankfully the weather conditions were pleasant and a well contested game ensued. After ten minutes Rangers got their first sniff. Jaiden Ibbetson robbed the City keeper of the ball and was then brought down, but the resulting free kick came to nothing. Rangers began to dominate territory. Ben McPherson had a couple of chances that were not converted. The visitors relied on the fast break and Rangers had to be on their toes, as demonstrated by a speculative shot hitting the home team's woodwork. Just before half time, Rangers went ahead. Player of the day, defender Kirk Bain chipped in a nice ball and Ibbetson beat the keeper to it and rolled it home.
The pattern continued after half time, and it took twenty minutes before Rangers went further ahead. James Hart put Ibbetson through and he brought a good cheer from the supporters by finishing well. Two minutes later Ibbetson had his hat trick, with a solo run coming on the end of some slick Rangers passing. The flood gates looked to have opened when five minutes later a free kick was slammed home by right winger Ben Howe. However, to their credit, Tauranga City continued to battle away and got a late consolation goal after an initial shot was saved, but the rebound was slammed into the goal. The final score was Plains Rangers 4 Tauranga City United 1.
This was a good team performance from Rangers, with Bain, Ibbetson, Ben Fretwell and Andy Brabant all in top form. This Saturday Rangers have the interesting prospect of a visit from Taupo. Taupo have been playing well lately and themselves beat previous leaders TCU Relics on Saturday, as Rangers had done last week.