| THOROUGHBRED RANGERS WIN BY TWO
FURLONGS
Rangers turned in
one of their performances of the season as they ran out 3-0 winners
against Huddersfield Town. The Town fans may point to the fact that
their players aren't on full pay for the lacklustre performance. The
truth is they were blown away by a series of fine displays all over
the park.
Nick Culkin had picked up a knee
injury against Swindon on Saturday and so a first team return was
handed to Chris Day after a long period in the wilderness. Terrell
Forbes had semi-recovered from his illness and started at right
back. Carlisle partnered Shittu in the middle with Padula on the
left. Marcus Bean made way for Langley on the right and palmer
joined Bircham in the middle. Lee Cook played left wing with Gallen
and Furlong in attack.
Things couldn't have started any
better with Rangers taking the lead in style after only five
minutes. A high ball to halfway was brilliantly controlled and
flicked on by Gallen. Paul Furlong rampaged past the static Adi
Moses before smashing a fierce left footer past the helpless Senior.
After taking the lead on Saturday only
to throw it away immediately, the noisy Rangers support waited
anxiously to see what the Huddersfield response would be. We needn't
have worried. The Town front pair of Booth and Smith showed little
to worry Carlisle and Shittu although Carlisle did find himself
cautioned for an act of petulance. He stupidly barged Smith out wide
and then on hearing referee Clattenburg's whistle, smashed the ball
forty yards up field. He was booked and the ball moved forward. This
was the first of five Rangers bookings on the night and the only one
that could be in any way justified.
Chris Day was called into action a
couple of times but not in a way to cause any undue stress. He
claimed a cross/shot under his bar and punched a couple of times to
clear corners. Indeed one punch was hit with such ferocity that it
almost made the centre circle, if you added all Culkin's feeble
punches from Saturday together they wouldn't have got that far.
Rangers almost handed Town an
equaliser after fifteen minutes with a combination of a poor offside
trap and a lethargic linesman. Simon Baldry sprung the offside trap
and burst toward goal. Day rushed from his line to block and Shittu
slid in to clear as the danger was quickly averted. This was one of
only two occasions that Baldry would get away from Forbes all night
as the right back turned in a 2001/02 vintage performance.
Gallen should have scored when he
intercepted a poor pass to keeper Senior, his shot was weak and
allowed the Town keeper to recover in time. Paul Furlong nearly
added his second moments later when his swerving shot from 25 yards
nearly deceived Senior. He did well to cling on as Gallen tried to
pounce.
Baldry was at it again soon after and
only some excellent tracking back from Langley stopped him getting
his shot away. Eight minutes before the half time whistle Rangers
did double their lead through a predictable source, six-yard box
predator, Dan Shittu. Richard Langley swung over a corner and it was
headed back across goal. The ball hit something, not sure if it was
a post or a player but the ball fell to Big Dan to bundle home his
sixth of the season. If he keeps going like this he will be looking
to renegotiate the goal-scoring bonus for next year!
Cookie should have grabbed his first
Rangers goal as the half drew to a close. Gallen seized on yet
another poor back pass and picked out the Watford man. He jinked
inside but sent his wild shot into the crowd free lower tier of the
home end. He would try his luck a couple more times later in the
game but with similar results.
In the second half Gallen and Furlong
seemed to kick it up a gear as they gave Moses and Brown a real
chasing. Twice Gallen crossed only to see Furlong miss the cross by
a matter of inches. Furlong was eventually yellow carded by the fool
Clattenburg for persistent fouling despite the fact he had been
kicked to pieces all night.
Marc Bircham tried his luck with a
volley that was so wide Barry Venison wants to wear it as a suit!
The ball didn't even make it off for a throw on! The game was now
beginning to wind down, as Huddersfield seemed to accept that they
were getting nothing from this one. Indeed their only effort on goal
came late from Smith as Day threw his cap on it such was the lack of
power.
Williams had now replaced Cook who
seemed to tire badly and although his passing was erratic he did the
right thing on a number of occasions and ran the ball into the
corners to waste some time. You can never be too careful with
Rangers, 2-0 with two minutes to play sometimes ain't enough!
There now followed two very different
but equally superb passages of play from Rangers. Firstly they
decided that just keeping the ball in the corner wasn't enough and
they began a passing move that must have contained 25 one and two
touch passes. With cries of ole from the crowd with every pass it
was a joy to watch.
The second moment came from Langley
and made the third goal for Furlong. He was played into the box by
Palmer and ran toward Moses. As he seemed about to jink outside the
defender he dragged the ball back the other way ala Bergkamp. It was
such a mugging that Moses ran off the field to tell the nearest
copper! Langley squared the ball and Furlong blasted high into the
net to seal the victory. The fool Clattenburg managed to sour the
moment though by booking Langley following a little hot shoe shuffle
with Gino. This was typical of his over fussy, short sighted and
ultimately diabolical performance all night.
This was a great victory and the man
of the match for me was Forbes. He looked back to his very best and
this was even more remarkable for the fact that he couldn't even get
through the pre-match warm up without looking like he was going to
puke.
Every man deserves a mention for his
performance. Day gave the whole team confidence, Carlisle and Shittu
won everything in the air and Terrell and Gino didn't give the
wingers a sniff all night. Langley and Cook provided a constant
outlet even though both struggled to be involved at times. Bircham
and Palmer tackled anything that moved in midfield and Furlong and
Gallen in attack were quite outstanding.
This should give us great heart going
into the Bristol City game at the weekend and if we play like this
then another vital three points is well on the cards.
simon@qprnet.com |
