Rocester 0 Stafford Rangers 0 (Rangers win 5-4 on penalties)
Staffs Senior Cup 2nd Round
Tuesday 30 January 2018
Despite dominating play for most of the evening, Rangers needed penalties to see off plucky Rocester in this Staffs Senior Cup tie.
Neil Kitching fielded a strong side while giving game time to the likes of Mat Bailey, Levi Reid, Dan Westwood and Joe Thomas.
Josh Craddock had the Boro’s first real effort on goal in the 9th minute but fired wide from just outside the ‘D’.
Then Massiah McDonald went on an attack down the line before cutting the ball back to Dan Westwood. His shot was pushed unconvincingly on to the bar by Charlie Wood but the young Rocester keeper was first to the rebound to make the catch.
Rangers continued to press but were unable to find a way through the resilient home defence. There was a scuffed shot from Craddock who then had another blocked. McDonald also had one blocked and headed another wide.
Rocester sensed an opportunity as the half drew on but Scott Wesson miskicked when well placed after good knock down from Martin Smyth. From that, Rangers broke away but Joshua Ross got himself in the way of Dan Westwood’s powerful drive.
The final effort of the first half fell to sub Osebi Abadaki whose goal bound 25 yarder was pushed away by Wood.
Rangers carried on dominating play after the interval but Dan Westwood was denied by Wood who then kept out two efforts from Craddock – the second of which was an excellent close range block.
Another chance for Craddock was headed over. Wood saved well after McDonald’s shot deflected off Carl Allen and then came off his line quickly to close down Abadaki as the wide man advanced on goal.
Neil Kitching gave Lucas Burnett a 10 minute run out and the youngster nearly won it in added time with a header that had Wood stretching back to hold on to but full time came with the game score-less.
Penalties that followed without extra time and each side netted their first three spot kicks. Then the strong right hand of Adam Whitehouse pushed Eric Graves’ kick over the bar to give Stafford an advantage which they didn’t let slip. Rangers’ successful penalties came from Levi Reid, Joe Thomas, McDonald, Craddock and Abadaki.
But the win came at a cost with both Tyrell Waite and Mat Bailey picking up injuries while McDonald received a caution that will now result in him missing two matches though the forward could consider himself extremely unfortunate to pick up a yellow card for just standing his ground while Wood chose to kick the ball at him.
Rocester: 1 Charlie Wood, 2 Matt King, 3 Oliver Pratt, Eric Graves, 5 Carl Allen, 6 Joshua Ross, 7 James Frost, 8 Scott Wesson, 9 Martyn Smyth, 10 Joe Brockley, 11 Callum Riddell. Unused Subs: 12 Dale Stewart, 14 Dean Bromley, 15 Matt Nut, 16 Richard Froggatt.
Rangers: 1 Adam Whitehouse, 2 Sam Griffiths, 3 Kieren Westwood, 4 Mat Bailey (12 Kieran Morris 86m), 5 Jordaan Brown, 6 Josh Craddock, 7 Massiah McDonald, 8 Levi Reid, 9 Tyrell Waite (14 Osebi Abadaki 19m), 10 Dan Westwood (17 Lucas Burnett 81m), 11 Joe Thomas. Unused Subs 15 Jack Sherratt, 16 Robert Thompson-Brown
Cautions: Wood (Rocester); McDonald (Rangers)
Ref: Ben Stott
Att: 94
Report: Chris Elsley
