Craig Millward
02-09-2008, 09:20 AM
SHEFFIELD RANGERS (3) v ABBEY LANE (1)
GOALSCORER(S) -JORDAN MARPLES-DOUGLAS
MAN OF THE MATCH AWARD -RYAN VARDY
MATCH REPORT
Abbey Lane travelled to high flying Sheffield Rangers, who currently lie in second spot, and came away with a 3-1 defeat, which was rough justice for the performance the lads put in. Football wise Abbey Lane dominated the play for long spells, and rightly so, the words of one of the Rangers coaching staff "you deserved something out of this game", they did. You can't take anything away from Sheffield Rangers as they converted their chances, but they were made to sweat it out in a very closely competed game.
Abbey Lane got straight into the game from the kick off and should possibly have taken an early lead, but the chance skimmed the post and went wide. As in past weeks Abbey Lane have been playing some really attractive football, with some very neat one touch passing in triangles, taking time to work their way up the pitch. An error by the Abbey Lane goalkeeper gifted Sheffield Rangers a goal on fifteen minutes, where a cross from wide right seemed to be easily caught by the keeper but amazingly he dropped it in to his own net. This was a disaster from a team point of view as the outfield players had really got the Sheffield Rangers players flustered with the strong attacking play. Abbey Lane piled on the pressure and battled to force the equaliser, they seemed very comfortable on the ball, so much so we were having shots from just over the half way line, which to me shows confidence in their own ability. With five minutes of the half remaining another defensive error allowed Rangers a second. A free kick out wide saw the two man wall part allowing the ball through, where it was side foot volleyed into the net. The defence realised their mistake, but the finish was clinical. Abbey Lane pulled one back almost instantly from the centre, MILLWARD lofted a shot over from just over the halfway line, the keeper parried the ball up in the air and realised it wasn't going far enough, so he raced out of his box to head the ball away, the resulting ball fell nicely to MARPLES-DOUGLAS to volley home a sweet goal.
The half time whistle brought the first half to a close, i told the lads they were very unlucky to be 2-1 down, and had definately been the better footballing side throughout the first half, but we had to stop making costly mistakes.
Abbey Lane started the second half where they had left the first half, on the attack. Chance after chance went begging to try and pull the game back to 2-2. Sheffield Rangers were battling hard to try and force another goal but the Abbey Lane defence stood strong and cleared the ball well. The Abbey Lane strikers FURNISS and TERRY battled away trying to get the equaliser, but it just would not come. With ten minutes remaining a defensive change back fired, when almost instantly the defender was turned out wide and the result was a free run on goal, to which the ball was buried into the Abbey Lane net. This was rough justice for the team as they had battled well through out the game, and were let down by silly mistakes that proved to be costly mistakes.
I believe a draw would have been a fair result from this game, as i believe Abbey lane did have a lot of the play, but at the end of the day it is the team that puts the ball into the back of the net that prospers. I would personally like to see Sheffield Rangers get promoted this season, as i think they have a good team, that are very organised.
If we can keep up the performances of past weeks then surely we will avoid getting dragged into the bottom three.
GOALSCORER(S) -JORDAN MARPLES-DOUGLAS
MAN OF THE MATCH AWARD -RYAN VARDY
MATCH REPORT
Abbey Lane travelled to high flying Sheffield Rangers, who currently lie in second spot, and came away with a 3-1 defeat, which was rough justice for the performance the lads put in. Football wise Abbey Lane dominated the play for long spells, and rightly so, the words of one of the Rangers coaching staff "you deserved something out of this game", they did. You can't take anything away from Sheffield Rangers as they converted their chances, but they were made to sweat it out in a very closely competed game.
Abbey Lane got straight into the game from the kick off and should possibly have taken an early lead, but the chance skimmed the post and went wide. As in past weeks Abbey Lane have been playing some really attractive football, with some very neat one touch passing in triangles, taking time to work their way up the pitch. An error by the Abbey Lane goalkeeper gifted Sheffield Rangers a goal on fifteen minutes, where a cross from wide right seemed to be easily caught by the keeper but amazingly he dropped it in to his own net. This was a disaster from a team point of view as the outfield players had really got the Sheffield Rangers players flustered with the strong attacking play. Abbey Lane piled on the pressure and battled to force the equaliser, they seemed very comfortable on the ball, so much so we were having shots from just over the half way line, which to me shows confidence in their own ability. With five minutes of the half remaining another defensive error allowed Rangers a second. A free kick out wide saw the two man wall part allowing the ball through, where it was side foot volleyed into the net. The defence realised their mistake, but the finish was clinical. Abbey Lane pulled one back almost instantly from the centre, MILLWARD lofted a shot over from just over the halfway line, the keeper parried the ball up in the air and realised it wasn't going far enough, so he raced out of his box to head the ball away, the resulting ball fell nicely to MARPLES-DOUGLAS to volley home a sweet goal.
The half time whistle brought the first half to a close, i told the lads they were very unlucky to be 2-1 down, and had definately been the better footballing side throughout the first half, but we had to stop making costly mistakes.
Abbey Lane started the second half where they had left the first half, on the attack. Chance after chance went begging to try and pull the game back to 2-2. Sheffield Rangers were battling hard to try and force another goal but the Abbey Lane defence stood strong and cleared the ball well. The Abbey Lane strikers FURNISS and TERRY battled away trying to get the equaliser, but it just would not come. With ten minutes remaining a defensive change back fired, when almost instantly the defender was turned out wide and the result was a free run on goal, to which the ball was buried into the Abbey Lane net. This was rough justice for the team as they had battled well through out the game, and were let down by silly mistakes that proved to be costly mistakes.
I believe a draw would have been a fair result from this game, as i believe Abbey lane did have a lot of the play, but at the end of the day it is the team that puts the ball into the back of the net that prospers. I would personally like to see Sheffield Rangers get promoted this season, as i think they have a good team, that are very organised.
If we can keep up the performances of past weeks then surely we will avoid getting dragged into the bottom three.