Aston Rangers stormed back to the top of the Shapla League with a efficient and ruthless display against the so far unbeaten Sparkhill United.
The line up showed only one change, with Rangers welcoming back Fazlul at the expense of the injured Ayaz Uddin.
With plenty of time to prepare before the game Rangers where made well aware of the task ahead and were well fired up before the game began.
The match as expected started at a quick pace with both sides looking to stamp their authority on the game. It was Rangers however who took control of the game with a fine mix of aggression and guile. Rangers went very close to taking the lead early on when Majid just failed to make a full connection with a header from a corner and watched as the ball trickled agonisingly wide. Rangers were not made to wait long though to make their superiority pay, as a ball through to Mcgee from Wasim led to hesitancy in the Sparkhill defence, Mcgee then nicked the ball from the full back, shrugged off the centre half and finished with his usual deadly precision. A fine individual goal from a very motivated Mcgee.
The following passages of play, saw both teams exchanging chances, with Sparkhill breaking away from a Rangers corner, the finish however from their midfielder was poor. The Rangers goal was again threatened from a corner, with a goal bound header rebounding off the well positioned Leon and away to safety. Majid again went very close to scoring, when from a well worked corner his close range shot bought a fantastic save from the Sparkhill keeper. Rangers again upped their game to the next level and scored a delightful goal on the stroke of half time. Beginning from the defence, the ball found its way to Man of the Match Zar who played one of his mesmerising, defence splitting passes to the back post for Zamal to finish with a flying header after a perfectly timed run. A great finish to a fine move and a great time to score against a team who were visibly looking for the half-time whistle to come.
A delighted Shah welcomed the players at half-time and stressed the importance of not letting the tempo of the game drop.
The start of the second half very nearly saw Sparkhill come back in to the game. However Farooq was back to his commanding best in the Rangers goal and produced two top moments to defy the Sparkhill attack .The first coming from a corner when a combination of him and Zamal cleared the ball off the line and the second a fantastic save down to his left off a Sparkhill header.
It was not long however before the game was put out of sight. Akbar using his physical strength to shrug off the Sparkhill defender then turning and producing a moment of pure quality, picked out the run of Mcgee with a wonderful long range pass. The rest as they say, was history, as Mcgee continued his rich vain of goals with a cool chip over the advancing keeper.
In this kind of form and with great motivation, Rangers where impossible to live with. Fazlul finally came to the party after a somewhat subdued performance, as he produced a contender for goal of the season. The ball made its way to him at least 20 yards or so out and he produced a wonderful acrobatic volley which flew past the Sparkhill keeper and into the top corner of the net. The goal clearly left Sparkhill dejected and there was still time for the newly introduced Asfar to draw a top class save from the Sparkhill keeper as his rasping 25 yard drive was finger tipped onto the bar.
On the whole this was a fine performance by the whole of the Rangers team with no exceptions. A rare occasion when each one of the 11 performs to his full capabilities and when the opposition’s best player is their goalkeeper then this says it all.
Well done to all the players and management and the hope is that this rich vein of form can continue in the coming months.
MATCH REPORT WAS DONE BY ADDERS, NICE ONE BRAV!!!
