Stafford Rangers 2 – 0 Stalybridge Celtic
Feb 25, 2018

Evo-Stik Northern Premier League

Saturday 24 February 2018

A super strike from Kieren Westwood was the highlight of an entertaining afternoon as Rangers marked their 3,000th post war league game with a welcome win in front of their own fans.

An unchanged Rangers kicked off in the same positive manner that had seen them beat Rushall on Tuesday. Rangers were more or less in control from the off and took the lead in the 17th minute when Izak Reid was put through with an excellent ball from Massiah McDonald.

Reid still had plenty to do as he held off two Stalybridge defenders before hammering his shot into the roof of the net. Stalybridge had missed out on a good chance of their own a few minutes earlier when Stafford Rangers failed to deal with a Connor Hughes cross but Matty Wolfenden’s shot was blocked by Kieran Morris.

Despite holding the advantage Rangers were unable to add to their tally as Morris headed over and Danny Morton nipped in to deny McDonald.

Stalybridge’s Hughes who bagged both goals when his side beat the Boro a couple of weeks ago, forced a save from Adam Whitehouse with a first time shot from around 25 yards as Rangers deservedly took their lead into the half time break.

The home side stayed on top at the start of the second half as Jack Walton saved at close range from McDonald. Then, in the 53rd minute, came a contender for goal of the season. Kieren Westwood did well to cut out a crossfield ball then advanced before unleashing a 30 yarder that went in via the underside of the bar.

The trio of Hughes, Wolfenden and Liam Dickinson all went close to reducing the arrears but all were just off target while, at the other end, Robert Thompson-Brown was unlucky to see the ball run away from him after good approach play from the Boro but Rangers were comfortable and recorded back to back league wins for the first time since October.

Stafford: 1 Adam Whitehouse, 2 Dan Vann, 3 Kieren Westwood, 4 Kieran Morris, 5 Jordaan Brown, 6 Josh Craddock, 7 Izak Reid, 8 Levi Reid, 9 Kyle Perry, 10 Robert Thompson-Brown (12 Jack Sherratt 87m), 11 Massiah McDonald (14 Joe Thomas 90+3m). Unused subs 15 Dan Westwood, 16 Sam Griffiths, 17 Brad Caswell

Stalybridge: 1 Jack Walton, 2 Danny Morton, 3 Alex Honeyball, 4 Tom Brown (14 Oliver Roberts 60m), 5 Luke Ashworth, 6 Ross Killock (16 Harrison Holgate 83m), 7 Jake Charles (12 Oliver Crowley 54m), 8 Greg Wilkinson, 9 Liam Dickinson, 10 Matthew Wolfenden, 11 Connor Hughes. Unused subs: 15 Josh Ramsden, 17 Aiden Winterbottom.

Cautions: Brown (Rangers), Brown, Dickinson (Stalybridge)

Ref: Mark Howes

Att 426

Report: Chris Elsley

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3:00 pm
NPL Premier Division

Stafford Rangers v Workington AFC

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