SHOTTERY UNITED v BADSEY RANGERS: THE MATCH PREVIEW...

 Shottery United v Badsey Rangers: The Match Preview…

This will be my first visit to Shottery United’s Home Guard Club ground but although I haven’t seen Shottery play at all I have seen their opponents Badsey Rangers once. I saw a pre-season match in 2014 between Badsey and Bewdley Town, which ended 1-1…

These two teams lie 7th and 8th in the Walls & Ceilings Division 2 of the Stratford Alliance League, although Rangers do have a match in hand over Shottery, due to their opening fixture v Tysoe United being postponed. This makes the outcome of Saturday’s fixture rather more important for both clubs.

The Shottery Sleuth have won two and lost three of their five fixtures, their goal difference is currently +5 and they have 6 points. 

A 0-4 victory at Blockley Sports, with goals by Liam Atkinson and a Jake Woolley hat-trick, was followed by a 4-0 loss at Shipston Excelsior Reserves. 

A Connor Hughes goal wasn’t enough as the lads lost a home match v FISSC Reserves (Fulbourn Institute Sports & Social Club) 1-2, after which the Sleuth were beaten on the road at AFC Bromsgrove by 3-1, with Alex Povey nabbing a consolation goal.

Last Saturday, Evesham Eagles were hammered 8-0 by Shottery with seven players notching goals: Povey scored a brace, whilst Woolley, Atkinson, Ronan O’Leary, Ben Clark Jack Robson and Sam Weaver netted one apiece.

Woolley thus leads the goalscoring chart with 4, followed by Povey with 3…

Badsey have won 1, drawn 2 and lost 1 of their 4 matches thus far, whilst their goal difference is -2 and they currently have 5 points.

BADSEY RANGERS: TAKEN ON WEDNESDAY EVENING AND SENT IMMEDIATELY TO ME BY WAYNE NEALE...

Rangers’ Reagan Martin scored in their first game at Blockley Sports, which ended 1-1, then Rangers beat Shipston Excelsior Reserves 2-1 at home, with both goals coming from Stuart McDarby.

TAKEN ON MY ONLY VISIT TO BADSEY'S GROUND...

A 3-3 draw v FISSC Reserves saw Martin score again, along with strikes by Jacob Andrews and Ben Higgins, then last week-end Higgins grabbed a consolation goal as Badsey crashed 1-4 at home to AFC Bromsgrove. 

THE DUGOUTS 6 YEARS BACK AT BADSEY...

Thus McDarby, Martin and Higgins all currently have 2 goals in Rangers’ goalscoring chart…  

Shottery’s manager James Taplin assesses the season so far for his team:

 “This campaign started well, for I brought my good friend Joe Rawlings into the club to be my assistant, following a tough time last season.

Firstly, at the start of pre-season we had to deal with which players were going to be available from last year’s squad. We also had to manage the return of players who had been struggling with longer term injuries, as well as adding one or two new faces.

However, once we had a rough idea of what the starting eleven might look like, we were then able to get to work and find formations which suited the types of players we had.

Pre-season was OK, I’d say… We tried different formations and attempted to give a large squad a good amount of playing time. We did have a couple of good results, including a draw against Division 1 team Redditch Borough Reserves.

The league season has brought a mixed bag of results for us, starting with a 0-4 win on the road, which included a Jake Woolley hat-trick. Then we hit a bad patch, losing three on the bounce and so Joe and I had the task of changing the team’s formation. This we did and last Saturday we beat Evesham Eagles 8-0 at the Home Guard Club.

The team is gelling together nicely now and even in the games we have lost, we have been competitive and have shown spells of the kind of football that we are trying to instil into the players. 

I’m hoping we can carry on picking up points from the upcoming fixtures and keep pressure on the teams above us.

Saturday v Badsey Rangers will be a tough test for the lads but we hope to secure another three points…”

Badsey Rangers’ Wayne Neale writes about the re-emergence of Badsey Rangers:

“After three years in the wilderness, Badsey Rangers are once again plying their trade in the world of Saturday adult football. 

Following on from a successful period running the Badsey Rangers U16 team, I have since taken a group of 16-17 year olds into men’s football. 

Adding some local talent and experience (one or two being more experienced, or should I say ‘older’ than others) we have started to build what looks on paper like a strong and capable squad.

The season so far has been mixed but encouraging, so much so that we are disappointed not to have more points on the board.

We opened the campaign with a disappointing draw away at Blockley. We should have put the game beyond doubt in the first half-hour but a failure to take our chances meant that we paid the ultimate price in the second-half when Blockley took advantage of some inexperience and scored on the counter 

attack.

However, the pleasing trait which has developed during this season has been that the squad keeps going until the 90th minute and Reagan Martin grabbed a deserved equaliser just five minutes from full-time.

It was testament to how disappointing the result was that only one team was happy with a point and it wasn’t Rangers… 

Our second game was a home fixture against Shipston Excelsior. This was a fiery encounter with two dismissals and several cautions but the game itself saw a similar pattern to the Blockley game.

A mistake early on meant that we went into the break 1-0 behind, however a change of formation and the return of El Capitano (Jake Hall) from the bench meant that there was only going to be one winner. Two goals from elder statesman and Assistant Manager Stuart McDarby (including a rare winner with his head) meant that we collected all three points.

The pattern of falling behind continued in the third match against FISSC Reserves, for we trailed 2-0 at the interval. We were 3-1 down midway through the second-half (Ben Higgins had scored for us) but once again we showed the ability to dig in and grind out a result. Goals by Reagan Martin and a superb headed equaliser by Jake Andrews with the last touch of the game meant that our unbeaten start to the season for this young side had continued.

Unfortunately this success was short-lived, following our last outing against AFC Bromsgrove. A combination of suspensions and injuries in the first-half meant that we again went in at the break with a 1-0 deficit. This time we were unable to recover and Bromsgrove ran out 4-1 winners, although Ben Higgins grabbed another goal for himself.

We go into the match at Shottery aware that they have also had a mixed start to the season. We are confident that whilst some of the exuberance of youth has led to a few costly mistakes, the problem will improve as the term wears on and this same exuberance means that the team will never know when it is beaten and the players will continue to battle until the end.

We are still adding to the squad and finding the most suitable system and pattern of play that will bring the most out of the players that we have. When it all clicks, we are confident that the results will further improve and so will out league position…” 

Video highlights of the match with commentary, images, a full report & screenshots will be at themowdog.blogspot.co.uk from Sunday...

Thanks to Shottery's James Taplin and Badsey's Wayne Neale for sending the above information which forms the majority of this preview!