AFC Prospect Farm Rangers VS Portsville Park.
Venue: Havant 6th Form College.
Sunday 02/10/16. 10.30am Kick Off.
AFC Prospect Farm Rangers were looking to kick start their league season this week after two defeats in difficult cup ties in previous weeks. After an opening day draw in the league they were up against old HSFL adversaries Portsville Park FC and an open and competitive game was always on the cards.
After just 5 minutes it was clear that the Rangers were set up to attack and controlled early possession playing some neat, quick, first touch football and it wasn’t long before Rangers took advantage of some sloppy defending by the Portsville defence. Following a corner clearance the ball was played back into to Sally Doran on the edge of the box, in room, quick feet took him passed two defenders and he calmly placed the ball beyond the stranded Portsville keeper to put Rangers 1-0 up after just 8 minutes.
Portsville, realising that they had to step up if they didn’t want to be over run early on started to play some decent football themselves and found a bit of space in the middle of the park. On the 10 minute mark a harmless looking ball was played down the right flank, with time on his side Rangers keeper Dave Hunter slipped as he tried to clear up field with one of his left feet and the ball fell kindly to the approaching Portsville forwards, 1-1 and the game looked evenly poised.
The game now became open with chances being squandered by both sides but it was Rangers that still looked the more offensive and on 28 minutes a great ball in from the left across goal left Rangers Blake Bicknell with easy task of finishing and putting Rangers 2-1 up.
Rangers again took control were defending brilliantly when needed and were playing some very quick counter attacking football. On 28 minutes it was Rangers Kyle Needham that found himself through on his own following a long ball out of defence and the outcome was never in doubt 3-1 to the Rangers and just a few minutes left on the clock in the first half. These minutes saw the Rangers players sitting back to see out the half but that almost back fired. Portsville had a great opportunity to close the deficit back to one before the break but, a fine block by David Hunter in a one on one situation made amends for his earlier mishap and maintained a 3-1 advantage for Rangers at the break.
The players took a well-deserved 10 minute break on a very warm morning and the feeling was that if Rangers scored next the game would be over but, game on if Portsville came out more positive and scored first in the second half.
After a very positive and lively half time team talk Rangers came out quickly in the second half and within 13 minutes of the restart played their game plan perfectly and had the game won. Portsville were playing a very high back line and caught the Rangers forwards offside on numerous occasions. Seeing this Rangers dropped deeper and played shorter quicker football in their own half, progressing up field as a unit to break down the Portsville back line.
After some clever interlinking play in the middle of the park Rangers left back Ryan Tout received the ball in his own half and took off, beating three players down the left he reached the bye line and turned towards goal beating two more players as he did so, from a very narrow angle he then slotted home to put Rangers 4-1 up. Unbelievably he repeated what was almost a carbon copy goal 7 minutes later to extend the score to 5-1. Portsville looked shell shocked when on 58 minutes Blake Bicknell netted what was his second of the morning and at 6-1 it was all Rangers.
On 60 minutes Rangers made three quick substitutions with Tom Stone replacing a hard working Andy Till just back from a long period of injury, Miguel Alegre replaced Tiago Ferreira who had run the Portsville defence ragged all morning and Ryan Doran replaced Kyle Needham who had played an almost perfect game on the left for Rangers.
Just five minutes after the changes Portsville did manage a second following a mix up in the Rangers defence but the Rangers settled down and saw the game out winning with a well-deserved 6-2 score line. With a now injury free squad and all players available for selection AFC Prospect Farm Rangers could be a force to be reckoned with in Division Five this season.
