First half
Rangers started brightly they had lots of the ball and looked like the better of the two sides. Their number 9 Jake Charles ran the channels brilliantly giving the Atherton backline a bit of a headache in the first half. It seemed it was only a matter of time before rangers broke the deadlock. Atherton didn’t really cause rangers too many problems going forward however they did defend quite well and despite the fact that Rangers were the better team they stayed in the game and made it very difficult for Rangers to break them down. Rangers dominated for much of the first half but it was 0-0 at the break.

Second half
Rangers continued to probe the Atherton defence in the second half but the still couldn’t find a way through. It looked like it was to be one of those days, especially for the Boro when Atherton went In front after the rangers defence failed to get the ball clear and the Atherton number 9 Matty Gilliam latched on to the loose ball to make it 0-1. After the goal rangers knew they had to respond and to their credit they kept going right till the very end and the late pressure paid off when rangers number 8 Tom Tonks found some space on the edge of the box after a long ball was pumped up field. Tonks was able to turn and shoot 1-1 75th min, it was a great finish from our captain to get us back in it. Ultimately rangers’ efforts to find the second were unsuccessful and the game ended 1-1.

Teams:

Stafford Rangers Pilling Burns Endall Harvey Moran O’Neill Kenton Tonks Charles Navarrro Cuff
Atherton Collieries: Hutchinson Smith Peet Niall Battersby Lafferty Amado Conway Doyle Gilliam Leneham Cusani
ATT
662

Report completed by Luke Buckley