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The only thing that officially separated Northern Rangers and Prospect Knights in their Round 10 clash at the NTCA, was a moment of individual brilliance from Northern Rangers midfielder, Todd Hingston when he struck his shot from 30 yards out, into the top corner of the net, to put Rangers 1-0 up, and eventually won the game with the strike.

Rangers went into the game in top spot, a loss would see the side slip to second, but Whitemore wasn’t interested in talk of losing, reemphasising Rangers strong points during the year so far at training with a detailed season to date analysis, and reminding the side of the dominant display in round one where Rangers had a crushing 7-1 win over Knights.

Gabriel Tams was playing in his 150^th game, albeit under an injury cloud, but Tams was desperate to prove his fitness and avoid missing this game, and pushed through to take his place in the starting line up.

Both sides played the game at a high tempo, but Rangers were making more of the possession, despite moving the ball around a little too slow at times.  After some strong chances to Rangers, Knights broke out on the counter, Sean Harris and Pip Atherton combined well, and Atherton hit a bullet like strike in the 18yard box, that cannoned off the cross bar and back into play.

Jago was having an amazing game, doing no wrong, and causing the Knights back four some real pressure, but the only goal of the game, came from Todd Hingston’s amazing strike from midfield, that sailed over Innis’ head in goal, and into the top corner to put Rangers ahead, and things stayed this way to half time.

The second half started the same way the first had ended, both teams were desperate to get complete control of the games to secure the points.

Knights sent a through ball in, and Marshall Pooley came out to gather it, he was hit by Omenihu after he had controlled the ball, subsequently dropping the ball, Omenihu then collected the ball and dispatched it into the net, but the referee had correctly called the foul, and the goal was disallowed.

Almost immediately after, Rangers made the most of the space up front, and Jago went forward after breaking clear of the defence, but Rangers could not extend the lead.

Hinston almost scored his second from a corner when he rose above all, but nodded the chance just wide of the goal.

Sean Harris struck a free kick from just out side 18 yards, the connection from the boot was clean, over the wall, but just over the bar also.

In the closing stages of the match, Rangers hung onto the lead, Knights threw players forward in a desperate attempt to score the equaliser, but the Ranger defense stood firm, eventually holding out for a deserved 1-0 win, completing the season double over knights, and getting a valuable 4 point buffer at the top of the table going into the bye next week.

Adam Whitemore said after the game,

"A good win, great to get a clean sheet, we looked comfortable and composed for most of the game, against a handy side.

We have got to play at a higher tempo possession though.  The ball just moved to slowly and with not enough pace, which is essential when you play against sides that defend in such numbers.  We also need to get greater pressure on the ball at times.

Work rate was again excellent."