Match Report
Match Report - 05 Sep 2008, St Francis Rangers FC 1st Team beat East Grinstead Town
In truly horrendous conditions, Rangers got back to winning ways with in their first home match of the season. Rangers boss, Dan Bryan said, “although we weren’t at our best tonight, we proved we can be industrious when needed and take our chances when they come”.
Grinstead started the brighter of the two sides really should have been 1 nil up after a mix up between the impressive Tom Djamaluddin and Si Lehkyj. However, the experienced Tobi Hutchinson took too long to get a shot in and Rangers skipper Dan O’Farrell made a superb last-ditch tackle to prevent the goal. A minute later Lehkyj had to be sharp at his near post and from the resulting corner Tadman fired over. With Ben Palmer switching to left back for the evening, he was seeing plenty of ball and it was down the flanks that Rangers did most damage. Chris Maynard went on a great run and fed Phil Gault the ball but he failed to hit the target. On 15 minutes Rangers opened the scoring and this time it was Luke Leppard down the right that did the damage. His strong run lead to Jake Forward firing home from the edge of the box. At this stage of the evening, the heavens opened up but the pitch coped superbly with the conditions.
Gault could have doubled Rangers lead when his fired wide after a decent cross by Maynard. However, it was Lehkyj who called into action on the half hour mark when saved bravely at the feet of Hutchinson and then moment later was in action again as he forced Tom Saunders to fire wide. Right on the stroke of half time, Rangers went 2-0 up somewhat against the run of play. From a Si Lehkyj goal kick, Maynard got on the end of Iain Woods flick and finished superbly with a curling shot in to the top corner.
The weather was starting to cause both keepers problems with handling and Lehkyj was pleased that when he spilt a cross Elliot Butler put it behind. At the other end Lee Whibley dropped a Maynard corner at the feet of Russ Turpin who made it 3-0 on 72 minutes. Turpin had not long been in the action after he replaced the injured Ben Palmer. Before Rangers made it 3-0, they had their best move of the night which saw some great link up play between Jeremiah and Gault and Iain Woods drive was inches wide. Turpin went in the book for Rangers after the sheer pace of the ball coming off the surface caught him out and the same then happened Tom Saunders for EG. Rangers sealed the victory with a quarter of an hour remaining when Maynard made no mistake from the edge of the box after a knock down by Jeremiah. O’Farrell went in the book late on for dissent and with minutes remaining, Luke Leppard headed into his own net.
Last season, Rangers would probably have drawn this match but now there is very much a cutting edge and end product to their approach play. The score line was quite flattering to Rangers but they have a belief they can finish teams off when they get chances in front of goal.
Rangers: Lehkyj, Leppard, B.Palmer, Djamaluddin, O’Farrell, Butler, Woods, Forward, Jeremiah, Gault, Maynard: Subs: Turpin (Palmer), Breeds (Maynard), Slade (Woods), Harris and Walton both unused.
MOM: Tom Djamaluddin – solid all night.
St Francis Rangers FC 1st Team 4 - 1 East Grinstead Town