Stafford Rangers v Worksop Town

REPORT

Time is starting to run out for Stafford Rangers if they want to start to lift themselves out of the Northern Premier League’s relegation zone.

Saturday’s defeat at home to Worksop was their third in succession and their third consecutive outing without scoring a goal, leaving the Boro with a miserable start to 2024.

A couple of months back, Worksophad thumped Rangers 5-0 in what proved to be Matt Hill’s final game in charge of the club. While the visitors were unable to replicate the scoreline this time around, once they had taken the lead in the 12th minute, there was little doubt about where the three points would be going.

Dave Cooke fielded loanee Zak Kempster-Down for his debut at left back with Ben Woods dropping to the bench but it will need several more new faces with more experience for Rangers to kick start their campaign.

The visitors got the ball in the Stafford net within a minute of the kick off but Vaughan Redford was flagged offside.

Jay Rollins fired straight at Cam Belford before The Tigers opened the scoring following Terry Hawkridge’s corner.The ball was played into the Stafford 6 yard box but visiting skipper Hamza Bencherif was the only player who made a real effort to get to it, climbing high to head past a couple of Stafford defenders on the line.

It could have been 2-0 five minutes later when Hawkridge floated the ball in from the left. Rollins got in ahead of Kempster-Down but stabbed his effort wide of goal.

All the openings were being created by the visitors – Bencherif headed wide while Kempster-Down needed to clear off the line following Hawkridge’s free kick.

In the final minutes of the first half, Jake Moult was on hand to block from Josh Wilde, Connor Heath cleared off the line from Bencherif and an error from Belford was cleared up by Andy Burns. Rangers were grateful to just be the one goal behind.

The story was pretty much the same after the interval. Redford ended some good approach play from Worksop with a poor finish that went high over then Wilde headed straight at Belford.

Some good play by Rollins on the Worksop left led to the visitors doubling their lead on 72 minutes. Rollins did well to retain possession before Sam Wedgebury centred for Redford who nodded back for Jordan Burrow to head past Belford. It was all too simple.

Stafford only managed one meaningful effort on goal throughout the afternoon but visiting keeper Seb Malkowski was more than equal to a good strike from A-Jay Leitch-Smith.

Rangers remain in 19th place but five points from safety with 13 games to play.

Stafford: 1 Cam Belford, 2 Andy Burns, 3 Zak Kempster-Down (12 A-Jay Leitch-Smith 79m), 4 Simon Njaria, 5 Ethan Stewart, 6 Jake Moult, 7 Tyreece Onyeka (16 Nathan Blissett 64m), 8 Joe Willis, 9 Kaiman Anderson, 10 Sean Cooke, 11 Connor Heath. Unused Subs: 13 Jack Sandel, 14 Kingston Fligg, 15 Ben Woods

Worksop: 13 Seb Malkowski, 2 Regan Hutchinson, 3 Josh Wilde, 4 Sam Wedgebury, 5 Hamza Bencherif, 6 George Taft, 7 Terry Hawkridge (16 Aleks Starcenko 85m), 15 Vaughan Redford, 9 Colin Daniel, 10 Jordan Burrow, 11 Jay Rollins. Unused Subs 8 Paul Green, 12 Deegan Atherton, 17 Jack Broadhead

Referee: Peter Dingle

Cautions: Bencherif (Worksop)

Att: 638

Report by Chris Elsley