Marine 1 – 1 Stafford Rangers
Evo-Stik Northern Premier League
Saturday 3 February 2018
Rangers had to settle for a point from their trip to Marine in a game that both sides could have won but neither deserved to lose.
Marine probably edged the opening 10 minutes with skipper Dan Mitchley involved in all of their early chances but he never really troubled Adam Whitehouse.
It was a poor kick from the Rangers’ keeper that gave Mitchley his best opportunity after the ball struck Kieran Morris on the back but the Boro defender got back quickly to extinguish the danger.
As the game developed, Rangers got more of a look in and Morris was in the action at the other end when he headed over while Jack Sherratt fired wide.
Spencer Myers sent a shot from the edge of the D rising over the Rangers bar and James Short fired a dangerous ball across the face of goal as Marine kept pressing the stand end of the ground.
But it was the home goal that was under the greatest threat and Massiah McDonald forced Martin Fearon into the first real save of the afternoon, the Marine keeper acrobatically leaping high to his left to concede the corner.
But, after Mitchley had headed over for Marine, it was a cracker from McDonald that broke the deadlock, a minute before the interval, the on loan forward beating Fearon from around 25 yards.
There was still time for Marine to stage one last attack before the interval but Whitehouse was able to gather Mitchley’s header.
Whitehouse saved another Mitchley header early in the second half while Fearon parried a shot from Karl Hawley and was able to gather with no Rangers player on hand to pick up the pieces.
Rangers survived a scare when Whitehouse spilled a free kick from Kenny Strickland, inviting Mitchley in but Morris slid in to clear off the line.
Two minutes later, Morris turned from hero to villain. A poor header from Jordaan Brown gave Dominic Reid an opening but he was bundled over by Morris who was sent off and Mitchley got his goal from the penalty spot to level on 75 mins.
Despite being a man down, Rangers continued to press and Osebi Abadaki missed a glorious chance to restore their lead when he blazed over from 6 yards out after good work on the right from Robert Thompson-Brown. McDonald then hit the side netting from 18 yards.
As the game reached its final stages, Thompson-Brown volleyed high over and Abadaki forced a save from Fearon but Marine should have won it in added time. Vincent Bailey squared for the unmarked Mitchley but Whitehouse saved superbly. Seconds later, Mitchley fired over with the last kick of the match.
Marine: 1 Martin Fearon, 2 Kenny Strickland, 3 James Short, 4 Adam Hughes (12 Peter Wylie 66m), 5 Phil Baker, 6 Spencer Myers, 7 Florian da Silva (15 Niall Watson 65m), 8 Michael Brewster, 9 Danny Mitchley, 10 Vincent Bailey, 11 Johnny McGrath (16 Dominic Reid 65m) . Unused subs 14 Liam Tongue, 17 Charlie Duke
Rangers: 1 Adam Whitehouse, 2 Sam Griffiths, 3 Kieren Westwood, 4 Kieran Morris, 5 Jordaan Brown, 6 Josh Craddock, 7 Osebi Abadaki, 8 Jack Sherratt, 9 Karl Hawley (15 Levi Reid 76m), 10 Massiah McDonald, 11 Robert Thompson-Brown. Unused subs 12 Dan Westwood, 14 Joe Thomas, 16 Izak Reid, 17 Brad Caswell
Cautions: Strickland (Marine), Brown (Rangers)
Sent off: Morris (Rangers)
Referee: Jack Neild
Att: 445
Report: Chris Elsley
