Stafford Rangers v Leek Town

REPORT

Stafford Rangers manager Matt Hill labelled his side’s 3-0 defeat to Leek Town in the Staffordshire Senior Cup at Marston Road as an ‘eye-opener’.

The current holders of the cup crashed out of the competition with last night’s heavy home defeat which saw the Blues three up at half-time.

Aaron Opoku scored twice for the away side adding to Rob Stevenson’s goal that took Leek to the victory.
Matt Hill was left unhappy with the defeat and his side’s performance as he gave an opportunity to many players who’ve not had much game-time.

“It’s an eye-opener for me in terms of what I’ve seen tonight,” said Hill

Adding: “It’s disappointing, you never like to lose games. I’ve said before about winning and getting into good habits. I had a great opportunity tonight to change it up and have a look at a few players which we did do.

I’ve just said to them ‘when you knock on the door and ask why you’re not playing and you then get the opportunities to play, then you’ve got to really show why you should be in the side’.”

Opoku’s first goal and the opener for the night was an extraordinary goal. The striker riffled the ball into the top left corner from the left edge of the box, leaving Cameron Belford only able to get a hand to the shot which proved not enough to stop it.
Prior to this, the Rangers had started the game well, creating opportunities and looking bright early on, but Hill’s men were unable to convert, much to his annoyance.

“We started the first 15-20 minutes with some good sustained pressure with good opportunities to put the ball in the box, but again without really testing working the keeper.

You huff and puff around the box, but we’ve got to be ruthless like I’ve said pretty much all season.

When you’re on top you’ve got to take those opportunities and press on, but if you don’t you have to keep the back-door shut and we didn’t.

We we’re 3-0 down at halftime and the game is pretty much gone then, it’s game over.

I did ask the question about the reaction and how we’re going to be in the second half, are we going to wilt and feel sorry for ourselves or are we going to show a reaction.

Whether it’s too little to late nor not there was a positive reaction and a better performance by certain people. But it was too little too late.”

Tuesday night’s defeat was Stafford’s first in the competition since 2017.

The Rangers are the current holders of the Staffordshire Senior Cup and have claimed the title for the past three years beating Hednesford Town, Rushall Olympic and Stone Old Alleynians in the three finals.

However, after last night’s defeat the trophy won’t be going back to Marston Road for the fourth consecutive year, leaving just the league for Matt Hill and his side to concentrate on.

Asked if there’s disappointment that Stafford’s journey comes to an end in the competition this year Hill said: “Definitely because it was a fantastic feeling to win it last season.

It’s something to play for at the end of the season and the way we finished it last year, it was a great moment and something that I cherish from that point onwards from a playing and manager point of view.

Yeah, it’s disappointing, I say all the time that we want to win games and whoever comes on and plays has got to be bang at it to win the game.”

Report by Luke Powell