Plains Rangers played their penultimate game of the season, against new club Old
Blues in greasy conditions in Tauranga on Saturday.
The opening minutes provided plenty of cut and thrust as the two sides tested each
other out. Rangers keeper Matt Aberhart dealt with a number of through balls, while
at the other end, the Old Blues keeper was quickly in action as well. Rangers opened
the scoring after twenty minutes. Player of the day Mark Thompson pushed up from
centre back for a corner, and gathered a loose ball on the edge of the area. His well hit
shot took a slight deflection and slammed into the goal. The remainder of the half was
fairly competitive, although Rangers were gradually wearing their opposition down.
After the interval, play was scrappy for ten minutes as the players readjusted to the
skidding surface. Rangers increasingly forced Old Blues to drop ten men back into
their defence to keep them at bay. There were a number of narrow misses, until
Rangers finally made the game safe. A good corner from Damian Scully was headed
goalward at the back post by Bas Overdevest. The whole Old Blues defence watched
helplessly as the ball went between them into the goal. The rest of the game went
smoothly for Rangers. An amusing highlight being the trapping of a high ball by
keeper Aberhart under his legs. The game ended at Old Blues 0, Plains Rangers 2.
This continued Rangers good run of recent form. Thompson was named player of the
day for excellent mopping up of opposition attacks in his role as sweeper. Centre
midfielders Overdevest and Jason Pullar were also in dominant form.
This Saturday Rangers have their last league game, at home to Otumoetai. Kick off at
the Edgecumbe Domain is at 2 p.m.