Stafford Rangers v Boldmere St. Michaels

REPORT

Stafford Rangers progressed to the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy by defeating Boldmere St Michaels at the Stan Robinson Stadium.

To add spice to the tie, Rangers manager Neil Kitching was both a player and manager of the Mikes while Nick Amos and Ian Cooper were also with the club before their move to Stafford last season.

Kitching made four changes to the side beaten at Lower Breck last week. Callum Smith’s first start was enforced due to the suspension of Arron Davies. Jimmy O’Neill came in for Scott Wara who was carrying a slight injury. John Atherton replaced Ash Fallon but the big surprise to home fans was the inclusion of James McQuilkin who had not seen action since the FA Cup defeat against Lutterworth at the start of August.

The visitors began well and created a couple of chances in the opening exchanges – Smith had to block a close range shot from Freddie Cockerell – but it was Rangers who took the lead on 12 minutes when O’Neill’s header took a fortuitous deflection off the unwitting Jack Birch, leaving keeper Harrison Barber helpless.

Having got themselves in front, Rangers controlled play and put together some good moves on a pitch showing considerable improvement now it has received a good watering. All that was lacking were more goals.

Neither Atherton nor McQuilkin was able to convert Alex Worley’s testing centre and the ball trickled wide off Pierre Phillips.

Jack Sherratt had a shot blocked and Dan Cockerline threw himself to meet another cross from Worley but was unable to keep his effort down.

Kaiman Anderson sent a ball across the face of the Boldmere goal before some excellent play from Atherton presented Birch with a chance to add to his tally but he tried to pick out a waiting team mate and Boldmere cleared their lines.

After Cockerline missed a golden opportunity early in the second half, heading over from 6 yards out, Boldmere gradually began to look stronger although it was Rangers who created the better chances.

Zidan Sutherland beat Phillips on the right but declined to shoot when the opportunity arose allowing Boldmere to clear. Worley clipped his shot over the bar and Barber saved from Anderson when the Stafford man had just the keeper to beat.

The visitors pushed forward in the closing stages and nearly levelled when Smith failed to deal with a free kick. Kye Bilton lobbed the ball over the crowd but it came back off the post before being cleared by Cockerline.

Stafford Rangers: 1 Callum Smith, 2 Callum Wilson, 3 Alex Worley, 4 Jack Sherratt (16 Mason Rees 75m), 5 Andy Burns, 6 Jimmy O’Neill, 7 John Atherton (12 Zidan Sutherland 58m), 8 Jack Birch, 9 Dan Cockerline, 10 Kaiman Anderson (15 Ben O’Hanlon 90m) 11 James McQuilkin. Unused Subs: 13 Zac Noble, 14 Ash Fallon

Boldmere: 1 Harrison Barber, 2 Kye Bilton, 3 Pierre Phillips, 4 George Cleet (14 Jordan Gough 53m), 5 Kyle Burke (16 Connor Armstrong 67m), 6 Charlie Manners (17 Nathan Oyemade 75m), 7 Red Simmons, 8 Kory Burke (12 Alex Lock 78m), 9 Harry Wakefield, 10 Danny O’ Callaghan, 11 Freddie Cockerell. Unused Sub: 15 Lewis Allison

Goals: Stafford: Birch 12m

Referee: Keir Sheppard

Cautions: None

Att: 503

Report by Chris Elsley