On Saturday SLH Contracting Plains Rangers hosted Rotorua United at Awakeri in BOP division two, in front of a decent sized crowd.
The visitors settled into their work quickly and their slick passing had Rangers under pressure. Rangers held out well for a while, then Rotorua got lucky when a wayward shot got a big deflection off a defender and ended up in the net. Rangers had a couple of chances as well, the best when striker Mike Johnstone was fouled in the process of shooting, the free kick was awarded just outside the box. Rotorua continued to dominate the half however.
At half time Rangers player-coach Christian Wetting was not happy with the disjointed play and urged his team to do better.
The introduction of Jordan Ogilvy into the game at left half lifted the performance of the home team. There were a number of dashing raids down the left and the strikers had some ball to play with. Rangers were more controlled through the midfield and Rotorua had to rely on counter attacks for their chances. Johnstone went close twice but Rotorua held on to take the 1 – 0 win.
Veteran defender Barrie Hawkes was named player of the day for Rangers, while ex-EBOP player Matthew Dawson earned the award for the visitors.
Rangers will need to play well for the whole ninety minutes in their next outing, which is a Bay Sportsmed Cup clash, away to Tauranga City next Sunday.