Rangers returned to winning ways with a 2-1 win at North Ferriby United this afternoon.
A full match report will follow
Other news concerns the postponement of our match at Warrington on Tuesday night. Warrington are still in the FA Cup and the league have allowed them to take Tuesday night off to prepare for next Saturdays fixture.
This Saturday, due to International fixtures is Non-league day. North Ferriby are looking to organise a 5 a side penalty shootout between their fans and our travelling fans. They are also offering, free entry for all Hull and East Riding school children and half price for accompanying adult. There is also free entry for every North Ferriby United Youth Team player and half price for their family and friends. There is however no mention of any deals that involve the travelling fans from Stafford.
We will be looking to exploit their apparent fragile home form which has seen them win one and draw 1 but lose 6. Having said that, their one win was a 3-0 win over South Shields and their draw was 2-2 with Grantham, so, even though North Ferriby lie bottom of the league we cannot take them lightly as we look to gain only our second away league win of the season. Going back to North Ferriby’s home defeat, they have lost to Whitby, Warrington, Scarborough, Witton, Matlock and Stalybridge, scoring 4 goals, but conceding 20 in those games. We are looking to get our first victory over North Ferriby, as our only previous encounters in seasons 2011/12 and 1012/13 have seen a home defeat and draw and an away draw and defeat.
Current league table shows
played Home away goals points
w d l w d l
Stafford Rangers 14th 13 3-2-2 1-0-5 -9 14
North Ferriby 22nd 14 1-1-6 0-2-4 -19 6
Rangers games played on this date, 12th October, this century.
2002 Rothwell home FA Cup 3rd Qualifying round won 3-0.
That season we lost at Shrewsbury.
2005 Kettering home FA Youth Cup lost 1-3
2013 Matlock home Northern Prem lost 1-3
North Ferriby United website HERE
Football is a funny old game one minute you’re up, the next you’re down and that has been the rangers lately.
We had a big win against Basford, then defeats to Bamber Bridge and Marine and then against top team Scarborough we were unlucky, 2 shots hit the post, one cleared off the line and again we made mistakes in defence. The new goalkeeper was a little hesitant at times and has not improved our defence but Steve’s working all the time to put things right.
As things are not going to plan just yet on the pitch, we can not say that about the Social Club and ground. The Social club is a popular venue and bookings are on the rise. The feedback from those using the function rooms is good. If you are thinking of booking a room we can provide the catering and the disco as well. Also don’t forget that we have special drinks offers on match days.
This week we have had 2 visits from officials, one was from the ground grading committee and we were delighted to receive a C grade for our ground. The Official remarked how much hard work had been put into tidying up the ground since he last visited 3 years ago. We also had a visit from Stoke City and the Premier league2 with a view to Stoke’s under 23’s playing some games at Marston Road, the official remarked what a lovely little venue this is. So it’s a big thank you to everyone who helped tidy up the ground, helped with the painting and to those who keep the pitch in good condition.
Last Saturday we gave out some awards, Harry Benns was voted player of the month by supporters, a fully deserved award. We also started our volunteer of the month award and Dan smith was presented with this award by Chairman John Bromley. Another fully deserved award. I would also like to thank Paul Downing for repairing our mowers at no cost; thanks also go to our sponsors from last week, Allet mowers, for giving us another large mower (superb).
Things are changing here at Marston road and at the beginning of next season we will be starting our academy team which we hope will eventually benefit the first team. Club representative Roy Sales will be co-ordinating this for us so if anyone would like to help with sponsoring this new venture then please get in touch with Roy at Stafford Rangers.
Let’s hope we had a bit more luck in the game on Tuesday night against Farsley and we gained 3 points. Steve and his management team are working hard trying to find the right mix of players but it takes time. Onwards and upwards.
The winning number on the 50/50 draw on Saturday was 7256 with a prize of £133. I would like to thank the winner for kindly donating a portion of this to the club.
The winners of the September lottery Draw are as follows.
1st prize no 1027 £500, 2nd prize no 116 £100, 3rd prize no 190 £50
Up The Boro
John
Since its launch £15,650 has been paid out in prizes and £12,045 in projects which include:
We have also started to do our accounts in-house and the lottery has helped to pay for our Sage subscription fee. This is a very forward move for the club and is saving the club money in the long run.
Pitch maintenance is officially funded by the lottery on a regular basis. This summer, especially, proved how we need the lottery to maintain our pitch along with the volunteers that work so hard.
We have been working hard at growing the lottery by speaking to local PTFA’s, junior football clubs and other organisations about the partnership scheme. This has been something we have been pushing in the last few months.
The lottery administration has transitioned over to Sally-anne from Paul who is hard at work with the website, Marketing and Accounts. Sally deals with the whole Lottery administration piece along with Eric, who as always is our lottery champion. Eric works incredibly hard behind the scenes and on the front line regularly speaking to anyone he meets about the Lottery, he Is a treasure. Our Chairman John Bromley who always carries mandates in his pocket is always dropping them off to us in the office with new members that have signed up.
All of us in the commercial office continue to push the Lottery and September has been a real reward as it was our best month since the launch of the Lottery. We have managed to sign up the management team and players. We have received mandates from people involved with the under 18’s team and from the other junior teams, special thanks to Roy for his work with forging relationships with the Junior teams. We are grateful to all for their support. Furthermore, we have a resident’s association kindly put forward by Alan Gee, that have come on board and are eager to sign their residents up on the partnership scheme – we wish them all the luck with this.
We have taken on a few more agents, one from Crispin Court care home, she was eager to sign colleagues up after seeing one of the residents had won third prize in the August draw.
Currently we are ring fencing some money within the Lottery scheme to put towards the carpark. This will be put in along with kind donations from many involved with the club including individuals, Stripes and the social club committee. Needless to say we are very grateful for the support. With all that put together we will have enough to do half of the carpark and we are also applying for a grant from the Football Foundation which will make up for the rest of the car park. Our application for this is in progress.
We haven’t had to use the Lottery as much this year due to forming good relationships with local businesses that have offered up supplies and workers to complete work that has been needed in the ground allowing us to save up towards the car park fund.
Our future plan is to outline projects after the car park, in order of priority to enable us to plan timescales, costs and future donations towards the infrastructure of the club.
Boost the Boro now has over 300 members and gross income has exceeded £2,000 for the first time. We are pleased to say that we will be upping the prize fund at Christmas and the prize fund is in review for the new year.
We would like to take this chance to thank all who are involved with Boost the Boro from behind the scenes to our loyal supporters – we are very grateful for your support which helps us to fund much needed projects at the club.
If you would like to become an agent or know of any organisations that would benefit from our partnership scheme, please get in touch with any of the commercial team by calling 01785 602430 or you can email lottery@staffordrangersfc.co.uk.
Kind regards
The Lottery Committee
Harrison Holgate who was on a youth loan from Fleetwood Town has been recalled by his parent club with immediate effect.
We can also confirm that Ozzie Abadaki has left the club to join Hyde United.
We wish both players well for the future
We are at that tie in the season when games come thick and fast. No time to dwell on Saturday’s defeat as we must look forward to Tuesday night, which brings up another “old firm derby” as we entertain Farsley Celtic. Yet again we come up against a side with some recent troubled history, as in our recent past we have played two Farsley Celtics.
We first met on August 11th, 2007 in their first came in the Blue Square Conference and we lost 1-0. They inflicted the double over us on March 1st with a 2-0 win. The following season we were both relegated, but again we met on the opening day but at Marston Road on 9th August and we beat them 1-0. The return fixture we were well beaten 4-0, a game I remember well in that our own financial troubles had seen some players leave and we put out a much-weakened team. The following season in the Blue Square North we drew 2-2 at home on August 22nd, 2009, but I have no record of an away fixture. However, history tells us that Farsley went into administration in June 2009 having failed to fulfil its fixtures and were expelled. The new Farsley Celtic started up in 2010, still playing at the Throstle Nest and in the Northern Counties East Premier Division. A steady climb up the pyramid saw our paths meet again last season where we lost both Northern Premier League games, 2-0 at home and 1-0 away.
So far this season Farsley have played 9 games to our 12 and lie 10th with 16 points from 5 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats. Oddly enough while we have played 6 away games Farsley have only played 3, with a win at Warrington and two defeats to Basford and Nantwich. Perhaps we can catch them cold on one of their rare away journeys this season
Manager Steve Burr has commented on how good our fans are, so it is important we have a good turnout to support the team as it attempts to get back on winning ways, in the knowledge that a win will take us above out opponents.
Games played this day (9th October) this century.
2001 Southern Premier League Hinckley away 0-3
2004 Conference North Vauxhall Motors home 1-1
2007 Conference York City away 0-2
