| GALLEN SPARKLES AGAINST
DETERMINED DIAMONDS
Rangers continued
the happy knack of not playing too well yet still winning to grab a
hard fought three points against Rushden & Diamonds.
Whilst Olly will doubtless be pleased
with yet another clean sheet he can't have been too happy with the
number of chances spurned as Rangers ended up clinging on to the win
by their finger nails.
An injury to Tony Thorpe meant that
Holloway had to make one enforced change to the starting eleven. Day
continued in goal after a clean sheet against Colchester as did the
back four of Forbes, Carlisle, Shittu and Padula. No changes in the
midfield either where Rowlands, Bean, Bircham and McLeod lined up.
Paul Furlong, back from his three game ban, returned to replace
Thorpe and partner the red hot Kevin Gallen.
Rangers flew out of the traps and
seemingly wanted to put the memory of a scratchy performance against
Colchester out of their minds. It should arguably have been 2-0
after about ten minutes as both Furlong and Gallen missed great
chances. Firstly Furs latched onto a great cross from Kevin McLeod
to send a volley goalward. He seemed to strike it into the ground
and Diamonds on loan keeper Jamie Ashdown dived to his right to turn
it away.
Only minutes later Furlong and
Rowlands combined to send Gallen racing clear with only the keeper
to beat. To give him credit Ashdown did well to get off his line and
narrow the angle and Gallen could only drive the ball against him
and it deflected harmlessly wide for a corner kick. You cannot blame
Gallen for trying the shot but if he had lifted his head McLeod was
free to his left and he would have been left with a simple tap in
had the ball been right.
Rangers grabbed a deserved lead after
24 minutes, thanks largely to the cool head of Martin Rowlands. A
corner was cleared from the box and the ball picked up deep by
Bircham. He knocked it long and Carlisle challenged Andy Burgess
with the ball finding its way to Rowlands wide on the right. He
jinked inside former R Marcus Bignot and picked out Gallen. Kev made
no mistake from ten yards out, striking a well placed shot past
Ashdown's right hand. That made it five in five for Gallen and
eleven for the season. Lets hope that this year he carries on as
last year he did almost the same and then barely tested the keeper
for the remainder of the campaign.
Dan Shittu had two fantastic chances
to get his first goal of the season but twice failed to work the
keeper. Firstly Gallen swung in a freekick and Shittu managed to
evade his markers but put a free header over from only six yards.
Moments later he found himself with the ball at his feet eight yards
out with only the keeper to beat. He took a touch and then tried to
tuck it into the corner with the outside of his right foot! I am not
sure where that came from but I think the better advice would have
been to hammer it as hard as he could and give the keeper no chance.
As it was the ball trickled wide with Ashdown no doubt a relieved
man.
Rangers were certainly not having it
all their own way though. Rushden boast one of the best front fours
in this division in Hall, Lowe, Kitson and Jack and had it not been
for Onandi Lowe's love of being offside some of their football may
have amounted to a lot more. Paul Hall, a one-time target for
Rangers, was giving Padula a real chasing and exposing him for pace
time and again. Some of Gino's positioning can be shocking at times
and he lets people get goal side far too often. He usually makes up
for it with a tremendous saving challenge but I would rather he got
his first challenge in properly rather than have to resort to that.
Almost on the stroke of half time
Ashdown saved Rushden again. This time Martin Rowlands hammered in a
freekick from thirty yards only for the Diamonds keeper to got down
to his right and avert the danger. For the second time in a week
Rangers had got to the break a goal up without really pushing home
their clear superiority and for the second time they allowed a team
to come out for the second half and dominate them for long periods.
Despite the domination in terms of
possession they were not creating too many chances. The main reason
for this was the dominating presence of Clarke Carlisle. Time and
again he stood firm in the face of pressure from the nippy Rushden
attack without faltering. Onandi Lowe tested Day early on but then
Rangers started to play on the counter attack with Kevin McLeod the
main outlet.
Adam Sambrook on the right of the
Rushden defence was getting comprehensively dismantled by McLeod,
but seemingly, only when he could be arsed. This is my main gripe
with Macca, he has electric pace and can whip in a deadly cross but
half the time he looks like he cant be bothered or maybe he zones
out of games when not involved. Whatever it is, if he could get
himself on the ball a lot more then I can see the goals for column
start to move in the same way as Plymouths.
McLeod lashed a drive at goal which
was blocked out for a corner and from the same corner McLeod sent
over another cross that evaded both Gallen and Carlisle as they
hurled themselves at the ball. Then came the moment that Rushden
came closest to pegging the R's back.
Paul Hall once again screamed past
Gino and found himself in the box with only Day to beat. He hammered
his shot past Day only to see it some back off the far post and away
from goal. The woodwork was still vibrating as Rangers broke yet
again with McLeod crashing a volley over the bar. Amazingly that was
Hall's last involvement in the game as Brian Talbot replaced him
with David Bell. Hall must have been as surprised as us as he had
given Gino a real torrid afternoon and looked like Rushden's most
potent attacking force.
Marc Bircham was next up to squander a
great chance when Ashdown and McLeod were in a collision outside the
box and the ball fell to Birch. Ashdown did well to force him wide
and several defenders had managed to get back by the time Bircham
sent the ball into the Rushden fans. You couldn't help nut wonder
what might have happened if the ball had ended up with Rowlands or
Gallen in that situation.
Trevor Benjamin had now replaced the
trumpy Paul Kitson and he almost headed Rushden level when he got up
to meet a deflected drive from Lowe. It seemed to be going in before
Benjamin intervened so the Rangers rearguard was pretty pleased.
Then in the final minute both teams should have scored. Firstly
Rowlands, who was operating on the left following the replacement of
McLeod by Ainsworth, cut inside and lashed a shot past Ashdown as
well as his post. Then at the other end Jack stole in at the near
post to meet a cross from Bell only to see Chris Day produce a
stupendous save to tip the ball out of the top corner.
There was relief at the final whistle
as this could have been one of those games today. The bulk of
possession and chances had not been turned into the comprehensive
win that it should have been. Time and again Rangers cut Rushden to
pieces on the counter attack but could not get the killer second
goal. By the same token Rushden had more than enough possession of
their own to have created more than they did and a sterling display
from Carlisle probably put paid to this.
Rangers must improve against Blackpool
next week especially as they will be out to avenge the opening day
drubbing. It may be time for Bean to take a rest after two very poor
showings this week, maybe Rose or Palmer should be considered for
what will be a very tough game. If Thorpe is fit I would like to see
him back in with Furs on the bench to make an impact later in the
match as for the last twenty minutes he looked like a man that
hadn't had much football.
Onwards and upwards.
simon@qprnet.com |
