Stafford Rangers v Kidsgrove Athletic

REPORT

With two blank Saturday’s behind them, Stafford Rangers arranged a friendly against Kidsgrove Athletic.

The Stafford side included two new faces with Jack Stafford and Owen German on show. It was later disclosed that the third new signing George Burroughs, was absent due to illness. Although still registered as a Stafford player, Ethan Morgan took his place on the right hand side for Kidsgrove.

Kaiman Anderson missed an early opportunity to put Stafford in front when he headed over from close range.

Kidsgrove’s first clear opening came 10 minutes later as Cam Belford was forced to tip over.

It was the visitors who took the lead on 20 minutes via a penalty from Aaron Bott after Belford had brought down Anthony Malbon.

A poor challenge on Joe Willis from one of the Kidsgrove midfielder’s saw the rare sight of a yellow card being shown in a friendly fixture.

Sean Cooke saw a fierce drive deflected wide for a corner but he was the man who grabbed the equaliser on the half hour when he went through the middle to slot past the visiting keeper.

But Kidsgrove went back in front a couple of minutes before the break. After a good build up Belford saved well but the ball ran to Bott who notched his second goal of the game.

With no substitutes available, Kidsgrove were reduced to 10 players when Tyrone Cadeau limped off. They got back to even numbers on the hour mark when a member of the Kidsgrove staff appeared in full kit but within seconds his side were a man down again as Malbon decided his game was up.

The game lost any degree of competitiveness in the closing stages. Rangers levelled on 72 minutes when Connor Heath benefitted from a poor ball out of defence.

Against his old club, Lewis Porter put Stafford in front on 81 minutes after good play from Cooke although Porter had looked marginally offside.

The scoring was completed on 88 minutes when Joe Willis made it 4-2 via the inside of the post.

One other notable feature of the night was a run out for Jimmy O’Neill who has been missing all season due to injury.

Stafford: 1 Cam Belford (13 Jack Sandel 77m), 2 Andy Burns (17 Jimmy O’Neill 77m), 3 Jack Stafford (14 A-Jay Leitch-Smith 63m), 4 Tyreece Onyeka (12 Ben Woods 46m), 5 Ethan Stewart, 6 Isaac Lee, 7 Joe Willis, 8 Kaiman Anderson (16 Connor Heath 46m) 9 Nathan Blissett (15 Lewis Porter 46m), 10 Sean Cooke, 11 Owen German

Kidsgrove: – No Line Up supplied

Referee: Jamie Code

Att: 130

Report by Chris Elsley