Coleshill Town v Stafford Rangers

REPORT

Stafford Rangers stepped up their pre-season training with a trip to NPL Division One South side Coleshill Town.

Having fielded completely different line ups in each half of their previous two friendlies, this outing saw a more familiar and settled Stafford side with only one triallist featuring in the starting XI.

Most of the players already signed up for the new season got at least an hour under their belts, the notable exception being winger Jaiden White who was withdrawn on the half hour mark as a precaution after a hamstring strain.

Missing the day’s action altogether was club captain Alex-Ray Harvey who fractured a bone in his foot at Newcastle Town last week.

On a scorching afternoon, it was a keenly contested game which produced few clear chances on either goal.

Coleshill attacking midfielder Kai Tonge gave Rangers a few things to think about and he nearly put his side ahead on 15 mins from a tight angle.

The ball spun goalwards off Cameron Belford forcing Luis Morrison to make an acrobatic goal- line clearance.

Rangers’ best chance before the first drinks break fell to Tom Tonks but the home keeper got down to make a comfortable save.

Soon after, Tonge had another chance for Coleshill but sliced his shot wide.

With Joe Kenton having earlier replaced White, Rangers made one further change at half time with the triallist A – player who has featured in all three matches to date – being replaced by triallist B – a player who featured for the club last season.

After newcomer Jack Baxter had fired wide for Rangers, it was Coleshill who opened the scoring on 59 minutes through Jamie Ashmore who beat Belford with a well struck drive from around 25 yards following a counter attack by the home side.

As the game moved into the latter stages, the pace and energy levels of the Coleshill players started to diminish with Rangers’ Triallist B frequently getting away on the left.

Finally, the equaliser came with 5 minutes of the 90 remaining.

It came from the boot of Kenton who fired under the body of the home keeper from the edge of the area – the Coleshill custodian should really have made the save.

Triallist B almost hit a late winner for Rangers as his shot bounced back off the post.

Coleshill (starting): Paul Hathaway, Jamie Ashmore, Harry Higginson, Niall Rowe, Kyle Burke, Fraser Doyle, Kai Tonge, Josh Willis, Gio Dainty, Reinaldo Forbes, Alex Tomkinson.

Rangers: Cameron Belford, Andy Burns, Joe Dunne, Jack Baxter (Triallist C 76m), Ethan Stewart (Taylor Draper 79m), Luis Morrison (Ben Forrest 63m), Jaiden White (Joe Kenton 32m), Tom Tonks (Theo Bailey-Jones 63m), Kaiman Anderson (Luis Wright 82m), Joe Willis, Triallist A (Triallist B 46m)

Att c80

Report: Chris Elsley