UNDER 18’s FINISH THIRD

Rangers’ under 18’s missed out on the chance to seal second spot in the South East Conference after losing their final game of the season at Leyton Orient this weekend.

Coach Steve Gallen was denied the serves of Ray Jones, Jon Munday and Andrew Howell, who were all in the first team squad for the Reading match and their absence cost the young R’s a lot of experience at this level.

Tim Sandercombe started in goal behind a strong looking back line of Karl Yelland, Dominic Shimmin, Patrick Kanyuka and Matthew Hislop, who was playing in, what might well be, his last game in Hoops.

Bill Coyne, Harry Smart, Phil Cousins and Mitchell Murphy completed the midfield whilst top scorer Ricky Sappleton was partnered by Ramone Rose who filled in for the injured Danny Maguire.

Unfortunately Rangers ended up on the wrong end of a 3-0 defeat and finish the league campaign in third place behind Champions Brighton and runners up Rushden and Diamonds. That’s no mean feat, the under 18’s side has been less settled than in recent years and this is due to the fact that so many players are beginning to make their mark on the first team, which can only be a good thing of course.

In reality, who cares where we finish in this league? We’ve won it before and not brought any kids through, this year we’ve finished third and seen Stefan Bailey, Scott Donnelly, Shabazz Baidoo, Sean Thomas, Ray Jones, Andrew Howell and Jonathan Munday all be involved in first team squads. The future looks good for Rangers and all credit to Joe Gallen and his entire team, hopefully we’ll reap the benefits of their work for years to come.

Rangers team: Sandercombe, Yelland, Kanyuka, Shimmin, Hislop (Sethi), Coyne (Arthur), Cousins, Smart, Murphy, Sappleton, Rose (Brown). Subs not used: Goodchild, Goode.