Monday evening saw us retain the Staffordshire Senior Cup at Stoke’s bet365 Stadium. An excellent performance with a brace from Jake Charles and a further goal from Danny Burns saw us lift our first silverware under Alex & Andy, defeating Rushall Olympic 3-0!
Match report to follow
Evo-Stik Northern Premier League | Saturday 22 April 2019
Stafford Rangers secured their NPL Premier Division status with an Easter Monday victory away to Nantwich Town. Needing a win to make certain, Rangers got the three points they needed thanks to a Jake Charles goal early in the second half.
Rangers were without the injured duo of Paul Bignot and Theo Bailey-Jones – the latter missing from the squad for the first time this season.
Nantwich Town had nothing to play for having already secured 4th place in the table and, with the Cheshire Senior Cup final due to take place two days later, they made 8 changes to the side that started in Saturday’s win over Lancaster City.
The opening 10 minutes were evenly balanced – the nearest either side coming saw Nantwich’s Nathan Brown float in a centre towards Danny Glover and Stafford skipper Luke Jones was forced to concede a corner. Stafford’s midfield and attack gave the Nantwich defence little time to settle and created a half chance when Louis Briscoe dispossessed Joe Davis but was unable to connect with Joe Cuff’s square ball from the following play. In the 19th minute, Cuff and Jack Sherratt combined to commit a needless foul on James Lawrie. The Dabbers’ captain floated in the free kick towards Callum Saunders who appeared to have done enough to open the scoring only for Adam Siviter to save well.
Stafford started to do more of the pressing and Dan Burns headed across the face of the home goal following Louis Briscoe’s well flighted free kick while Sherratt’s effort from around 20 yards out lacked conviction and floated wide. In between these two efforts, Charles did get the ball in the Nantwich net but was flagged offside and a fairly uninspiring 45 minutes ended goal-less. Nantwich were first to show after the break. In the first minute, Clayton McDonald tried to catch out Siviter with a quick free kick from the half way line then James Lawrie fired wide from around 15 yards out.
Stafford soon found their feet and Sherratt tried to put Charles through, but McDonald used his considerable size to block the Stafford man’s path, earning himself a caution. Toby Mullarkey fired wide for Nantwich after an exchange with Danny Glover before Stafford got their noses in front on 56 minutes. Briscoe did well on the right to get past Troy Bourne and got in a thumping shot that Lloyd Allinson pushed away. Cuff picked up possession on the left and burst past his man to get in a shot which was turned in at the back post by Charles. Burns was cautioned for bringing down Glover after getting caught in possession, but it was Stafford who were doing the pressing and Cuff put two efforts wide a couple of minutes apart. Glover tried a 30 yarder that Siviter was equal to and Rangers were able to celebrate their survival which would have been confirmed whatever their result after Mickleover’s defeat at home to Basford.
Nantwich: 1 Lloyd Allinson, 2 Nathan Brown, 3 Kallam Boyle, 4 Joe Davis, 5 Clayton McDonald (14 Caspar Hughes 66m), 6 Troy Bourne, 7 James Lawrie, 8 Toby Mullarkey, 9 Danny Glover, 10 Callum Saunders (16 Steve Jones 61m), 11 Luke Walsh (15 Joe Malkin 66m). Unused Subs 12 Louis Barnes, 13 James Hawkins (gk)
Stafford: 1 Adam Siviter, 2 Sim Thandi, 3 Matt Hill, 4 Luke Jones, 5 Dan Burns, 6 Andrai Jones, 7 Louis Briscoe (12 Andy Haworth 61m), 8 Tom Thorley, 9 Jake Charles (16 Ben Mills 85m), 10 Jack Sherratt (17 Peter Williams 79m), 11 Joe Cuff. Unused Subs 14 Jed Davies, 15 Sam Coulson.
Cautions: McDonald (Nantwich), Burns (Stafford)
Referee: Roger Darren
Att: 605
Report: Chris Elsley
What a lovely sound on Easter Monday to hear the Rangers faithful singing that good old favourite,
“we are staying up”. A tremendous achievement by Andy and Alex, plus the players to turn around our season, and hopefully they can turn a relegation threatened season into a promotion push on season 2019/20.
Divisional safety takes the pressure off for our last league game of the season when we entertain Matlock. There is no room for complacency as players will be playing for their place on Monday nights Staffs Senior cup final.
Matlock Football Club were established in 1878 and in early years competed in the Derbyshire Senior League and the Midland Amateur Alliance. After World War I the club was renamed Matlock Town and they joined the Central Alliance. In the early 60’sthe club moved up to the reformed Midland League, which they won the at the first attempt. They were Midland League champions again in 1968–69, subsequently joining the Northern Premier League. In 1974/75 Matlock won the FA Trophy defeating Scarborough 4–0. In 1979 they entered the Anglo-Italian Cup, finishing second in the English section. After a long spell in the Northern Prem Matlock finished bottom in 1995/96 and were relegated to Division One. In 2003–04 Matlock were Division One runners-up, earning promotion to the Premier Division, where they remain.
Quite often games at the end of the season can be dull affairs as, if safe with little to play for, you tend to get players in holiday mode, dreaming of the beach. This appeared the case on Monday when Matlock lost 6-0 at home to local rivals Buxton. I am sure they will not wish to display a similar performance again, so we need to be on our game, especially as we nee to avenge our December 22nd game at Causeway lane, when we had the lead twice.
So, this Saturday you as the 12th man can take a rest, but your support is still needed as we hope to finish the season on a high, especially as we could in theory finish above Hednesford. A good crowd plus a few celebratory pints in the Social Club will help set up the club over the close season. So please consider purchasing a season ticket as this is a big help to the club’s finances during the summer.
Games played on April 27th this century
2002 Moor Green A 1-1 Southern Prem
2005 Leek Town N 2-0 Staffs Senior Cup Final
2013 Nantwich H 2-0 Northern Prem
Boro Push Leaders All The WayT
hrostle Nest, Tuesday 9/4/19
Report by Alan Gee
A moment of opportunism from probably the leading current player, in the NPL, decided this affair but in reality there was not much between the possible champions and 18th placed Rangers! (more…)
Evo-Stik Northern Premier LEAGUE | Saturday 13 April 2019
Stafford Rangers boosted their survival hopes with a deserved win away to Whitby Town. Rangers were first out of the blocks and made an ideal start when Tom Thorley fired them ahead inside two minutes after an exchange with Jack Sherratt. Whitby responded with a good run from Jassem Sukar but Dan Burns’ intervention was enough to force Bradley Fewster to shoot wide. But Stafford were in dominant mood and Jake Charles missed a couple of chances to add to the lead in a five minute spell.
Charles ran on to Sherratt’s through ball – beating the Whitby offisde trap – but lost momentum after he stalled his run and Adam McHugh was able to save. McHugh denied Charles again when he tipped his shot on to the inside of the far post and Lee Bullock cleared. Whitby never looked a threat but came close to an equaliser midway through the half when Andrai Jones’ header came back of his own crossbar following Dale Hopson’s corner. Matthew Tymon was first to the rebound but was unable to convert.
But Rangers stayed in control and Thorley missed out when the ball got stuck under his feet from Louis Briscoe’s left wing cross then Briscoe missed out with a tame shot at McHugh after a mix up in the Whitby defence. Briscoe made up for his miss when he doubled Stafford’s lead with a 25 yard free kick a minute in to added time at the end of the first half.
The first 20 minutes of the second half produced little of note but then Joe Cuff – on for Briscoe – went on a strong run, riding the foul challenge from Dan McWilliams but the end product saw his shot go a foot wide. Theo Bailey-Jones struck a free kick into the Whitby defensive wall then sent the rebound high out of the ground.
As full time drew nearer, Stafford looked to be cruising to victory. After Fewster’s earlier effort, it wasn’t until the 85th minute that Whitby produced their next shot on goal. Again it came from the no 9 and again it failed to threaten Adam Siviter’s goal.
But it did generate a bit of life into the home side and a minute later, they were back in it as Siviter could only parry Greg Rutherford’s shot and Fewster tapped in the rebound. It set up for a nervy, backs to the wall finish for Stafford but they held out to record their first win over Whitby at the 12th attempt.
Whitby Town: 1 Adam McHugh, 2 Connor Smith (14 Greg Rutherford 60m), 3 Jassem Sukar, 4 Kieran Weledji, 5 Lee Bullock (12 Dan McWilliams 60m), 6 Daniel Rowe, 7 Leon Scott, 8 Callum Patton, 9 Bradley Fewster, 10 Matthew Tymon (15 David McTiernan 72m), 11 Dale Hopson. Unused Subs: 16 Adam Gell, 17 Jack Norton (gk)
Stafford Rangers: 1 Adam Siviter, 2 Paul Bignot, 3 Matt Hill, 4 Luke Jones, 5 Dan Burns, 6 Jack Sherratt (16 Ben Mills 74m), 7 Theo Bailey-Jones, 8 Tom Thorley, 9 Jake Charles (17 Peter Williams 85m), 10 Andrai Jones, 11 Louis Briscoe (12 Joe Cuff 54m). Unused Subs: 14 Jed Davies, 15 Sim Thandi
Cautions: McWilliams (Whitby)
Referee: Timothy Craig
Att: 367
Report by Chris Elsley
