Northern Rangers came up against Burnie United this weekend, at Birch Avenue, and found the game a lot tougher than perhaps they expected.

With cricket finals still taking up the NTCA, this game was played at Birch Avenue.

Rangers welcomed into the starting line up, Chris Hunt but lost Sam Luck to suspension, while Burnie were at close to full strength, with Ash Smith on the bench after he re signed with the club during the week.

Rangers started well but quickly dropped the momentum to Burnie who had a strong first half.

With Todd Hingston at centre back due to the loss of Sam Luck, Rangers looked a little short in midfield.

A soft free kick was awarded on the edge of the 18 yard box, and Chris Smith tucked it away well, over the wall and into the net for 1-0 after half an hour.

Rangers rarely troubled the Burnie goal in the first half, but Chris Hunt was looking threating down the right.

On the stroke of half time Burnie doubled their lead thanks to a well taken chance from ex Ranger Paul Bremner who struck the ball across the face of goal and into the side netting for the 2-0 half time score.

Coach Adam Whitemore was confident of getting back into the game, and urged the boys to find the form of last week against Riverside.

But Burnie burst out in the second half and scored their third goal thanks to Coach Sam Cocks’ boot.

Rangers did finally reel Burnie back in, and started to pin them into their half after over 60 minutes of poor football.

Chris Hunt pulled a goal back for Rangers before a send off for Burnie saw them reduced to 10 men.

Rangers resolve strengthened and an own goal thanks to strong pressure from Andrew Nicholson had them back in the game at 3-2.

Rangers so nearly had the scores level on many occasions, but Burnie eventually held on to win a deserved 3 points and strike a powerful blow to the Rangers confidence.

Adam Whitemore said after the game "Burnie certainly deserved their win. Their intensity was that much higher than ours, and we didn't really get out of first gear until the final 25 minutes.

From our point of view our passing was far too slow, and the quality not nearly good enough. We didn't pressure as well as we planned, and our decision making in the final 3rd was generally pretty poor, and it cost us dearly. Sometimes as a coach you look at the decisions you make and have to take responsibility for them and in hindsight my choice to play Hingston at the back didn't work. It unbalanced our midfield and we still conceded goals.

Just as we weren't getting too excited about winning last week, we won't be too down about losing this week though. Chris Hunt was excellent on debut, and we responded really well to being 3 goals down. In the end we should have equalised, but we didn't deserve a point on this performance."

The Reserves match saw Rangers easily account for Burnie 6-0, thanks to a Rat Trick from Gabriel Tams at right back.

Sam Nugteren opened the scoring in the first half from a corner while Adam Beard continued his good form in scoring a brace for himself.

Adam Whitemore said of the Reserves this week "Another good win for the reserves. Defensively we looked very solid and moved the ball pretty well at times. We still need to work on our movement in the last 3rd, and being patient in possession."