Rangers Blunt Blades In Lively Encounter At Camp Farm
Jet Blades 2-3 AFC Coventry Rangers
This pre-season match offered evidence to both sets of coaches who were looking for fitness, form and perhaps reasons to sign on a trialist or two. The scoreline mattered to the players of course, although with so many replacements being used, defeat for Blades would not have been particularly frustrating for their coaching staff. Certainly performances, accountability and sustainability would have been in the minds of the coaches as these two teams put on a lively show for the few folks who had bothered to turn up and watch.
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| HANDSHAKE WITH THE REF? REALLY? |
Strangely, Blades led for a minute or so, before being pegged back, then Rangers led for a couple of minutes, before they too were pegged back, but in the end Dan Grimston’s strike would deflate the hosts, partly because their offense was functioning with less effectiveness by that late stage in the match and in a way, the home players seemed resigned to the loss.
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| RANGERS' DEFENCE AWAITS A LONG BALL... |
For Jet Blades, Matty Wood was influential, assisting for the opening goal, forcing visiting goalie Ross Davis into his most difficult save of the afternoon and blasting a fine effort from downtown just wide of the right upright, as well as working generally hard in midfield. Nick Harrison held the defence together for much of the time but in truth, Rangers’ finishing had been untidy, rarely offering home gloveman Danny Hollywood any real opportunities to leap about and pull off spectacular saves. Dan Cassidy, who was cautioned for a challenge on Rangers’ skipper Jordan Powell, was busy and fired one decent free-kick wide, as well as adding aerial strength at dead-ball situations. Forward Jack Burchell took his goal well enough and displayed some form when in possession, although he was rested until the latter stages and the team missed his input during his absence.
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| POWELL & CASSIDY... |
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| AFTER THE BALL STRUCK CHAPPELL IN THE FACE... |
Rangers were well served by Ryan Alexander, whose two early misses didn’t ruin his appetite for attacking. He assisted for goal one, scored goal two and his pace and dribbling ability were both constantly evident. Left-sided defender Toby Curran impressed with his speed and forays forward too, whilst Alfie Boylin was as belligerent as ever, always wanting involvement, not always getting things right but he proved that he is the type of player most teams would like in their line-ups. Luke Comasky was a Will-o’-the wisp character in attack, never allowing defenders to rest, often pulling wide to allow Alexander or Powell to move through the gaps he had created. Daz Hutchinson and Adam Finch worked hard in the AFC defence too, alongside Farris Al-Omishy.
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| HOLLYWOOD, HARRISON & POWELL: A FIRM OF SOLICITORS, NO DOUBT... |
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| "NO, HONEST, THE TENCH I CAUGHT WAS THIS BIG..." |
Trialist Evans Oppong was an interesting performer too, displaying quick feet and an eye for a pass, although he might complain that he was denied a couple of penalty claims, as he wriggled into the Blades’ 18 yard box. I guess manager Kev Kingham will snap the player up as quickly as possible…
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| EVANS OPPONG: DID WELL... |
The game was fairly even, after a slow Rangers start, for Kyle Aubrey had been so close to scoring inside a minute for the Jets. Hutchinson wasn’t able to reach the loose ball following a heading duel some 35 yards out and suddenly Aubrey was away at inside-left but he was unfortunate to see his curling right-booter slap against the right stick, as Davis advanced. The forward wearing 16 nudged one shot to Davis with his thigh, I believe, but he nodded off target for the hosts too, as did Cassidy and Aubrey, then Aubrey had another effort deflected. Wood powered the drive mentioned above just wide and was then denied by Davis, who gloved away his stretched stab-shot, with Burchell driving the rebound too high, but soon Wood made the assist for Burchell’s goal.
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| HOW TO GRIMACE... |
Through the middle his pass went and Curran was just unable to intercept it, leaving Burchell clear and as Davis advanced, the forward’s slightly grubbed shot rolled a long way into the bottom left corner of goal from 17 yards.
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| 1-0: BURCHELL (11)... |
Immediately, Rangers equalised but they had squandered a few opportunities already. A mess of a free-kick situation between James Chappell and Powell was followed by Comasky’s right-flank centre being nodded down smartly by Curran at the far post but somehow Alexander lifted his close range left-footer over the target. Following Curran’s overlap and Oppong’s nod-down, Alexander then drove wide of the left upright and Comasky miscued one shot too. However, when Alexander fed Comasky some 6 yards out, although Hollywood charged down his first shot, the striker was able to convert the rebound quickly, just inside the right post.
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| 1-1: COMASKY, LEFT... |
Both Powell and Boylin sliced shots way off target and both Powell and Comasky forced Hollywood to smother awkward bouncing efforts from distance, all before the recess.
Half-time was short, a few rain-spots were being felt but subsequently the weather just about held. Visiting defender Al-Omishy was correctly penalised when the ball bounced up against his arm some 40 yards from his own goal but a caution for that was rather harsh… Cassidy’s booking had probably been harsh too, for this was a pre-season match, not a league encounter. If the referee wanted consistency, then maybe Chris Sockett was fortunate to escape punishment for a couple of later ‘loose challenges’ too…
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| BOOKING FOR CASSIDY... |
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| "YOU GOT A SEWING KIT, REF?" |
Cassidy nodded wide and then caused a goalmouth melee when his partial header dropped almost on the goal-line but Davis fell on the loose ball, as replacement 17 lurked. 17’s centre was dive-headed past his own post by the covering Hutchinson, before lively home substitute 7 made a decent long run but his 22 yard shot was well wide. Sam Reader equalised for the hosts after Alexander had scored for Rangers, when the Blades’ defender slammed the ball past Davis from 6 yards after a left-flank corner had found its way towards the far stick.
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| 1-2: ALEXANDER... |
Alexander’s goal was a combination of determination and opportunism by the Rangers’ forward and some very lax defending by the Blades. Comasky’s cross caused a heading duel but when the ball fell 12 yards out, inside-left channel, Alexander won a tussle with Sockett and shrugged into space before shooting low and left-footed past two flailing defenders and Hollywood, the ball rolling into the right corner of the net. Sockett and Blade 9 looked on…
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| 2-2 NOW... |
Two other Alexander shots were deflected, Powell headed well wide from Alexander’s corner, Oppong nearly got through onto another Alexander assist, Boylin drove wastefully high and Ahmadi Abdolkhalegh missed a good chance by shooting over with his right boot, whilst his left boot wondered what it had done to be ignored, again from Alexander’s provision. When Grimston won the match for Rangers, he had his skipper to thank for a fine assist. Powell’s deep cross from the right was slid into the net by the sheer will to get there of wide-man Grimston.
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| 2-3: GRIMSTON (11)... |
Grimston might have done better with a later free-kick shot and another replacement Rahm Khaliqdad fired a low effort wide in the closing moments but by then, the Blades had been well blunted…
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| REALLY? |
Thanks to both clubs for helping with some names/numbers and those that I have are listed below:
JET BLADES:
Danny Hollywood, Kyle Aubrey, Dan Cassidy, Nick Harrison, Matty Wood, Jack Burchell, Chris Sockett, Sam Reader.
AFC COVENTRY RANGERS:
Ross Davis, Adam Finch, James Chappell, Daz Hutchinson, Farris Al-Omishy, Ahmadi Abdolkhalegh, Alfie Boylin, Luke Comasky, Jordan Powell, Dan Grimston, Ryan Alexander, Toby Curran, Rahm Khaliqdad, Evans Oppong, Mustaq Fieda.
