Match Report
Match Report - 01 Nov 2008, St Francis Rangers FC 1st Team lost to East Preston
Saturday 1st November 2008
East Preston 3 – 2 St Francis Rangers
Sussex County Football League Division 1
If RANGERS want to improve on last seasons decent showing in County 1, then they need to learn to put games like this to bed when they have the chance. Amazingly, Rangers went in 2-2 at the break after giving away a 2-0 lead. Dan Bryan’s side had enough chances in the 1st half and the opening 10 minutes of the 2nd half to win 3 games let alone this one. With Phil Gault and Sam Jeremiah not have their scoring boots on and poor defending at the other end was going to be a recipe for disaster. A rather subdued Bryan said “I am starting to get really disappointed by our lack of discipline as silly suspensions are starting to cost us. We also need to put sides like this away. When we continued to miss chance after chance you could see their confidence growing and the 2 goals we conceded in the first half were very poor for.” “When in front, you could only see one team winning this and a 3rd goal would have killed the game but we gave away silly free kick and the wall didn’t do their job. Their equaliser, although was well taken, we watched the ball leave the keepers hand and with one pass it split us at the back and it was 2-2.” “The 2nd half turned in to a lottery with the continuous rain but they had their tails up and once they went in front, we never looked like getting back in it.”
Rangers started really brightly and totally dominated for the opening half hour and it was a major surprise that the score line was only 2-0 to the visitors. Phil Gault was upended early on and the penalty claims were waived away, this was just one of many poor decisions from the officials. Gault then saw 2 one on one’s saved by the keeper and just when he thought his luck was totally out, Chris Maynard followed up one of his shots to turn in to an empty net and give Rangers the lead. Rangers doubled their lead when another Maynard corner saw a defender put through his own net. Mid way through the 1st half saw a major decision go in favour of the hosts. Sam Jeremiah was through on goal only to be thwarted by the keeper who carried the ball out of his box. Rather than produce a red, the ref booked the keeper and Phil Gault saw his free kick just zip wide. Elliott Butler was next to see his shot saved and then moments later East Preston were back in it from a deflected free kick. Terry Dodd’s strike went straight through the Rangers wall and clipped off a defender and passed the stranded Simon Lehkyj. Terry Gacias and Ben Palmer both had efforts fly over as Rangers still looked the more likely to score again but a quick throw out from the EP keeper caught Rangers napping and Dodd chipped Lehkyj from the edge of the box to equalise for EP.
Rangers once again missed quilt edged chances early on in the 2nd half and the best fell to Jeremiah when he went on a great run but could only fire wide from just inside the box. The weather took a turn for the worse and surface water started to cover the centre of the pitch and EP certainly dealt with this much better than Rangers. Simon Lehkyj pulled off 2 fantastic saves before being beaten on 70 minutes when his great stop fell kindly for Chris Darwin. Rangers made a few changes and gave Jason Langston his first team debut and he showed some good touches in really poor conditions. Russ Turpin went close after a good run but Rangers rarely threatened as the game came to a close. Once again the ref made a very poor decision by sending off EP’s Kevin Budge for 2 bookables late on. His 2nd booking coming in the 93rd minute and was totally down to the conditions rather than a bad challenge!
Rangers: Lehkyj, Turpin, Butler, Djamaluddin, B.Palmer, Gacias, Slade, Forward, Jeremiah, Gault, Maynard: Subs: S.Palmer (Slade 72), Langston (Maynard 78), Gainey unused.
East Preston 3 - 2 St Francis Rangers FC 1st Team