Northern Rangers stunned all and sundry with a spectacular performance away to their Riverside neighbours today in round 6 of the Forestry Tasmania Northern Premier League.
After a dismal showing against Ulverstone last week, Rangers had to find a lot of improvement to be any chance of beating Riverside at Windsor Park today.
The start was very lively and held a lot of promise. Rangers had it all over River for most of the first half and Harry Thannhauser opened the scoring with a quality goal from midfield. Our midfield was on top, our strikers looked dangerous and our defence had it under control. Ball movement was generally as quick as it needed to be, but still could be quicker. River pulled a soft goal back against the run of play, but Rangers continued to dominate general field play. River were looking for long balls to wingers to try and invent decent forward thrusts but it wasn’t working. Those who arrived for the last 25 minutes couldn’t believe the score was 1-1 at the half.
As has been the case in just about every game, we seem to have to find 20 minutes where our intensity level drops away. Today it happened straight after half time. Credit must be given to Riverside as they began playing some very nice football, and were rewarded with a couple of goals. We reduced them to shooting from outside the penalty box, but give Ross Marzetti time to aim and you’re asking for trouble. A fourth goal for Riverside sparked Rangers into a late fight back, and when Kaileb Barracu tapped in after the goalie saved a Rory Ward bullet, we at least had some reward for fighting it out to the end.
From box to box we have matched every team in the competition, but we concede goals that we shouldn’t, and we don’t take advantage of the opportunities that we create for ourselves.
The effort today we an improvement on last week. Harry Thannhauser was dominant, Rory Ward solid for most of the game, and Hayden Vandervelde again showed that he has stiffened things up for us at the back. We had many other good players, but despite our efforts, we’re disappointed with the result. We simply concede too many goals to remain competitive. We have yet to keep a clean sheet and it makes it hard to put pressure on opposition teams without that ability.
The Senior Girls faced top team Deloraine for the second week running. Having gone down 4-1 to them in the McDonalds Cup last week, this week the girls went into the game with a great deal more courage and a secret weapon to help maintain a positive attitude.
The 2012 season is upon us and now is the time to commit to the Northern Rangers. The committee have worked hard during the off-season and will continue this effort to ensure NRFC have a successful 2012. Please read the president's message below, download the attached files and be sure to register for 2012 as soon as possible.
Go to http://www.myfootballclub.com.au/ to register as a player. Registration is relatively straight-forward and the attached guide is available if necessary. To be eligible to play in this weekend's Hudson Cup you must be registeredby 11:55pm Wednesday 8th February. All registration fees must be paid by the 6th of April 2012.
The start was very lively and held a lot of promise. Rangers had it all over River for most of the first half and Harry Thannhauser opened the scoring with a quality goal from midfield. Our midfield was on top, our strikers looked dangerous and our defence had it under control. Ball movement was generally as quick as it needed to be, but still could be quicker. River pulled a soft goal back against the run of play, but Rangers continued to dominate general field play. River were looking for long balls to wingers to try and invent decent forward thrusts but it wasn’t working. Those who arrived for the last 25 minutes couldn’t believe the score was 1-1 at the half.
