It was the final league game of the season for Gary Fowell Builders Plains Rangers when they hosted Ngongotaha on Saturday. Rangers started out in fine style, with a lot of movement up front causing problems for the visitors. Cameron Wills looked to have been taken down in the box early on but no penalty was forthcoming. Good work from captain Christian Wetting opened space for Adam Barkla to power a shot past the Ngongotaha keeper. Twenty minutes into the game James Krause scored with a brilliant strike from 25 metres to have Rangers looking like they were in control. However, the visitors stuck with the battle and when a Rangers defender gave away a penalty, they were back in the game. At half time it was 2 - 1 to Rangers.
It was hard to foresee what was to come though. Ten minutes into the second half the Ngongotaha team had a purple patch, feeding off some home town defensive errors to score three goals in ten minutes. Rangers were shell shocked. Then came a frantic last twenty minutes. Ben Fretwell went on a twisting run and set Wills up for a left footer, and he scored. The visitors struck back with a long range shot that the keeper couldn't keep out. Fretwell fed Wills another chance and, unluckily, it rebounded off the inside of the post and away from Rangers' players following up. Late in the day the Ngongotaha keeper did well to save a close range shot from Aaron Muggeridge after a good Wetting free kick. The final score was Plains Rangers 3, Ngongotaha 5.
Rangers' final game is the Sponsors Challenge against Whakatane Town on October 16th.