On Saturday Gary Fowell Builders Plains Rangers put in
a strong showing at home to Papamoa, and were unlucky not to come away
with a win.
Rangers got into stride quickly and put plenty of pressure on their visitors.
Nestor Rocha, on debut, was very unlucky not to open the scoring. With
the keeper beaten, his goalbound shot unluckily struck a fellow team mate
and was blocked. Soon after, he set up the hard working Dylan Arthur with
a chance, but the shot went wide. Rangers continued to have the upper
hand for the remainder of the half, and their defence kept the Papamoa
strikers, led by ex-Eastern Bay player Andy Brabant, quiet.
In the second half, the pattern continued. Player of the day Tom Davison
smacked a shot into the underside of the Papamoa crossbar, and it must
have been very close to bouncing over the line and then out again. Jeremy
Hawkes broke out of defence, and hit a left foot shot narrowly wide. Late
in the game Ben McPherson might have won a penalty, but the defender's
push was deemed to have been outside the box and a free kick given. Almost
on the stroke of full time, Christian Wetting's close range strike smacked
into the keeper to keep the home team scoreless. The final score was Plains
Rangers 0, Papamoa 0.
The game was played in good spirit, before a good sized crowd at Awakeri,
and it was well controlled by referee Ian Finch. It was a good performance
by the home team, with plenty of chances created, and no luck in the goal
department.
This Saturday Rangers have a bye, due to the unfortunate withdrawal of
the Kawerau team from the league.
A fantastic performance all round from the girls today; although Old Blues
were off to a flying start with the wind behind their backs, our girls
set about trying to shut them down. The wiley blues were somewhat fanciful
in their attacks but the tenacity of the girls defence across the park
saw that the Old Blues were not going to walk all over us. There was some
solid plays from the Rangers also, formation being the key and the promise
that the girls are on the right track. Running on empty again the girls
virtually played their hearts out; some commendable performances from
our backs slash forwards Kelly and Hailey; a well played game by Kylie
and a great performance in goal by Stacey, but the standout and player
of the day was Donna. She gave it all she had, and although not happy
with her performance. It was the actions of continuously thinking on and
off the ball that showed the desire to play some great football. Well
done girls you can all be proud of how far you've come in such little
time, now the addage today rings so true 'its not wether you win or lose
its how you play the game', you all put your best foot forward and put
together some nice pieces of football, well done.
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