Bramhall Rangers 4 Thirsty FC 11

Well another week, another defeat. Again a lack of players meant the Rangers were struggling from the off - this week Belly was missing, and T, Hedderz and other ringers couldn't make it due to the hectic Christmas period. Returning though were Mini and Shiz, and Russ was sitting out due to injury.

With no Belly or T to take up position between the sticks, a new tactic was tried in the first half - where the keeper swapped around every 10 minutes or so. The idea was everyone would take there turn, so it was fair to everyone. Nev took the first 10 minutes, Shiz the second, and Mini finished off the first half.

However the first half wasn't particularly great, a number of Piggy dances in his own half for another week gave away a few goals, and some slack marking from others on the team (a couple from myself) let the Thirsty players in. The Thirsty players were hungry for goals (see what I did there? :) ) and we a fast, quick passing team. If I remember correctly it was 9-2 at half time to Thirsty. The Rangers had had a number of chances though, including a strong penalty shout turned down when a Thirsty player ran through the area to win theball. Momentum my arse...!

The highlight in the first half was when Mini won the ball in the middle of our half, a shout from Nev to say he was free let Mini slot the ball through to him, and after taking a touch slotted the ball past the keeper with a finish that would make you wonder why he has now only scored 2 goals in 55 games!! Nev went 51 games before scoring a goal, and he now has 2 in 4 games!

To be honest the changing keeper perhaps wasn't helping things, so at half time I went in net for the whole second half - I'd been struggling with no subs by the end of the first half and felt it would be in mine and the teams best interests.

The second half was much better from the Rangers. The defending was fantastic, especially from Nev and Shiz, and for a long time in the second period we shut the opposition out. We had a few chances, and scored a couple of goals, eventually finishing the second half 2-2, .losing the game 11-4.

Thats about all I can say really, a fairly uneventful game. The Rangers goals came from Mini, Nev and a brace from Peter.

From all the Rangers, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!

Bramhall Rangers 4 Thirsty FC 11
Goals : Piggy (2), Mini (1), Goalscoring legend Nev (1)

Bramhall Rangers 2 Oz Tornados 15

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” – Christopher ‘Superman’ Reeve

It was a night for heroes. For legends to be born. It’s a story filled with heartbreak, Herculean efforts, drama and last minute intrigue. It’s the stuff dreams are made of, and a story that will be told time and again!

I am talking, of course, about the Rangers game against Oz Tornados last night. But let me set the scene first…

It’s a late kick off in December. It’s incredibly cold. Mini and Shiz can’t play, so we are already struggling. Mark and Hedderz also can’t make the return so we are on the call for ringers…anyone…someone who can boost our numbers. But to no avail. So 5 apprehensive Rangers head to Powerleague for the game at 10pm, wondering what fate and their opponents will bring. Belly was back between the sticks having just about shaken off his bout of man-flu. Peter, Nev, Russ and Pie made up the outfield players.

It’s getting close to kick off now, we are on the pitch warming up. Russ goes for a shot, misses the ball and completes an air shot, then collapses to ground under a cry of pain. Uh-oh! We haven’t even started the game yet, and Russ is crippled. Thankfully, for once it wasn’t Peter’s fault during warm up. That was about the only good news, as Russ says he thinks he felt his knee pop out of its socket and back in, and was feeling more than a little nauseous from the pain. He (eventually) manages to hobble to the sideline, but it is obvious he isn’t going to be able to play.

We are down to 4 players. Which obviously isn’t good. A quick chat to the ref to see if he can get any ringers, but he seems indifferent to the whole thing. He did pop off to reception, but came back with no one. “They’ll send anyone who wants to play if they can.” Which means we start with 4, only the 3 outfield players, and hope, no pray, that someone turns up!

No one did.

It turns out Oz Tornados are 3 parts Omatha, with some of their friends who we’ve not seen before. There was no Henry though. They had one sub. Oh for one more player, never mind a sub!

So we kicked off. It was always going to be a back to the wall effort for the Rangers. We couldn’t mark players as tight as we should have, as there was always one player free. An early ball into the channels saw one of the Tornados being challenged for the ball in the corner. He threw his hands round behind him, and raked Pie across the eye. This gave him the chance to get away and suddenly the Tornado’s were 1 up.

The first half came and went, and at half time we were 7-0 down. The Oz Tornados players seemed almost embarrassed they hadn’t made us pay more than that. The 4 players on the pitch had performed admirably in keeping the score down to only 7. They only had a couple of long range efforts to show for it in attack though, apart from one chance where Peter went through one-on-one with the Tornados keeper, only to drag his shot wide. Still we had another half to go, and it was sure to get worse as the 3 outfield players for the Rangers tired.

Pretty soon after kick off in the first half Russ had decided (sensibly) that it would be better for him to head into the bar and keep out of the cold. He hobbled off, and as he was walking through the reception the girl there said “are you from pitch 3, the guys who need some more players?” “Yes” said a sheepish Russ. “What happened? The ref came in and said someone had just fallen over?!” Brilliant! Not only were we playing a game with only 4 players, but the ref and probably half of Powerleague thought Russ had injured himself just falling over!! She still hadn’t found any players for us though…

Back to the action, and we started the second half. Again the Rangers performed admirably. To the credit of Oz Tornados they could quite easily have ripped us to pieces, but they kept their foot off the gas and perhaps showboated a bit more than they would have normally. This quite often gave the Rangers a chance to defend against them and even the chance to break and attack a little more in the second half.

In fact the Rangers actually got, not one, but two goals in the second half. Both fairly similar in their execution as Pie pressured a Tornados player in their own half as they dwelt on the ball a little too long, won the ball and slammed the ball past the keeper. Cue delight for the Rangers players – we might have only had 4 players, but we had managed to do score two goals!

Belly was heroic in net, there were a number of occasions through the game when comments from the opposition were amazed at how much he was keeping out and some of the saves were fantastic.

Peter tried to be as much of an outlet as possible, generally being our best bet to get forward and defending admirably too.

Nev was outstanding, breaking up attack after attack and appearing from nowhere at times to get blocks and tackles in, and bursting forward at times to try to support attacks.

Pie was also defending gamely, and got the two richly deserved goals for the Rangers.

Russ had managed to hobble back to the pitch to catch the end of the game after watching Real Madrid v Seville in the bar with a bag of ice on his knee.

The game finished with an air-shot from Piggy just as the floodlights went out! The Tornados were very complimentary with how we had played and conducted ourselves with only 4 players, and though the score of 15-2 suggests us being soundly beaten, we’ve taken worse results than that with a full compliment of players and with our better players being available! None of the Rangers players had let themselves down and could rightly walk away head’s held high!

The night hadn’t finished there though - on the journey home, and with some suggestion and persuasion from his Rangers teammates, it was decided Russ should take a trip to A&E to have his knee checked out. It might have been nothing more than a twist, but it could have been worse and as Russ was struggling to walk it was felt it would be best to check it out. So Belly, Peter and Pie sat in Stepping Hill A&E while Russ had his knee checked and x-rayed, and at 1am we left to go home, with the diagnosis being that he had strained some ligaments and perhaps some of his muscles in his knee had been popping over and rubbing against the bone. Lets hope it doesn't keep him out too long!

It was a Herculean effort from the Rangers, and they should all be very proud of their efforts. It also makes you wonder what will happen next time we play the Tornados with a full team. I think we could certainly give them a run for their money…

Bramhall Rangers 2 Oz Tornados 15
Goals: Pie (2)
Heroes: Belly, Pie, Peter, Nev
Crippled: Russ

Rangers Christmas Message - Live to the World

Brilliant.
Coca-Cola own a big screen at Picadilly Circus in London.
This year you can use this website and post a Christmas message that will be displayed to anyone looking across London.

At 10:23am today, the following was displayed to anyone in and around Picadilly Circus.

Happy Christmas everyone!

PIB 17 Bramhall Rangers 4

With an Illness striking down our keeper we entered a game with PIB. Nev took between the sticks and in my view did an outstanding job, showing good promise in the warm up.
We had mark on the side line but no Charlotte as she was under the weather.
We started gingerly with the first two goals, it seemed, coming in the first 5 mins. We battle on looking for the chances and from what I saw everyone was contributing to the attack as well as defence.
It was a not so much a physical game but more of a dirty one with opposition challenges that were beyond called for nevertheless the Rangers press on and with injuries to Nev and others in the team we each got on with our jobs and put in good performances.

A very late challenge, more like a clearly kick to the ankles, led Jim to question the validity of the oppositions play and the look of intent made PIB step back as neither side was looking for an end game. In my view, I did not blame or begrude Jim for his action. While I would have taken a different approach Jim was of the school of thinking that if you give an inch they will take a mile and he duely reminded them that even if the team was he was not going to let them pi$$ on him.

There were some positive from a very one sided score line, I got a goal .....for both teams. Mini with 2 and the opposition player managed to pass it into his own net.

I have to say that the effort put in by Nev was tremendous. His knees were shredded to pieces yet he still played on. He is not ownly a symbol of determination and commitment but he is also and am proud to call him my friend. P.S. Good luck with your date.

They score 17 but we did not lose the ball cheaply, there was always a good reason why they got passed us and it was good to see us all fighting for the ball even in the dying minutes. The 3 we score were the norm apart from my very infrequent long distance shot that paid off.

The ref was baisis to one side and it wasn't us but that is the environment we work in. My advise is in the closer games when there is favouritism I will be making the ref fully aware that we can make his life just as difficult for him.

At the begining of the season I spoke to Shiz and Mini about my play and financial penalties that would be incured. It may be best to total them on each weeks blog. I can not recall from Thursday but if either of you gentlemen can remember for next week that would be good.

We know the score (Nev goal watch 1) (Shiz goal watch 4?)

Bramhall Rangers 10 Cheadle Utd 3

"Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth" - Chuck Norris

After the previous weeks disappointing performance and result, it was either going to be a blessing or a curse that the next game against Cheadle Utd was to come around so soon. In the end it proved to be a very good thing, as the memories of the previous week’s results and underhand tactics used by CUT were still fresh in the mind.

A few changes were made to the match day squad, Rascle sitting out with the injury sustained last time round and Pie unavailable due to work commitments. In their places were Hedderz and Jim to add a bit more attacking flair. The conditions were atrocious. It was like playing football on Cleethorpes beach, puddles covered a large area of the pitch after a day of heavy rain, and that continued sporadically through the game. CUT lined up the same, and actually had one more man.

The referee was strong this week, clamping down on pushes straight away which were doubly dangerous given the conditions. This unsettled CUT somewhat as they were unable to use their physical tactics to ruffle the Rangers feathers. Mini was able to lead the charge notching twice to put the Rangers into the lead. The second came with some luck after ricocheting in off keeper and post. The first half was low scoring but CUT did get back in the game after some poor closing down by Mini, the guy wearing the most curious outfit you have seen (3/4 length pants, a sleeveless vest and a sun visor!) got a shot in from distance which squirmed off the wet surface and through Belly’s legs! Megged!

CUT were well closed down by the Rangers, Nev was really fired up and was putting life and limb on the line to get in the way of the ball. Jim was picking up the pieces in defence and working the ball forwards and Shiz was giving them a torrid time with consistent faced paced running…quite often they gave up chasing. Peter was being strong on the ball too and despite not registering in the first time was providing a physical presence not seen for a while. Hedderz, who was eager to get on the goal trail after a couple of barren games, was looking good, but unfortunately his game was cut short. Stretching to block a shot Hedderz twisted his ankle about 15 minutes into the game and had to hobble off. Hopefully it will heal quickly.

The half ended 2-1 and it was still a little close for comfort. Rangers needed to take the shots early and put pressure on CUT as they were taking risks in their own defence.

At the start of the second, CUT drew with a powerful effort from close range that Belly could do little about. However, this was as close as they got. Resorting to long range shooting and giving away a lot of free kicks it was relatively easy for Bramhall to soak up the pressure and hit on the break. Peter came into the game more in the final third and after some persistent battling and clinical finishing quickly racked up his hat trick. Jim was instrumental in a few of these moves with some precision passes and good touches. A great through ball enabled Mini to finish with one touch for his 3rd of the game too.

With gaps opening up and CUT heads dropping they were shooting from even further out, making it quite easy for Bramhall to defend. The spaces grew in the middle of the pitch and Jim was able to use his quick feet to carve open a chance. His finish was one Danny Boshell would have been proud of! The most magical moment of the game was when Nev, who had not scored for BRFC in 51 games before this, popped up on the edge of the CUT box. The ball bounced kindly and he lashed it passed the keeper…cue rapturous celebrations and an amusing little jig from Nev! Amazing scenes!

Despite not scoring, Shiz worked very hard throughout and assisted the goal scorers on numerous occasions. CUT were taking many risks in and around their own area, and Shiz was quick to close them down. His hard work paid off and he was able to square the ball for Mini to score his 5th at the death to cancel out CUT’s 3rd goal of the game. A fitting finish.

The difference in the end was that the Ranger’s did not rise to the antics of Cheadle and played their own game. Realising that they were not getting the better of BRFC, Cheadle soon lost teamwork and coherency which enabled Bramhall to ease them out of the game. In the end it was comfortable and convincing.

Final score – Bramhall Rangers 10 Cheadle Utd 3
Goals: Mini (5), Peter (3), (Jim (1), Nev (1)

Nev goal watch – 52…..oops! Sorry, old habits die hard! Back to 0 for Mr Nev, will it be so long until his next net bulger? Only time will tell!

*Winter 2006 Fixtures*

Gents,
Below are the fixtures for the coming season. We should get the print out on Thursday but the information below is correct to the best of my knowledge. Could someone please update the fixtures page to show all last season results. Also the 2nd fixture v MG needs altering as it shows the wrong score.

This seasons games:

07/12/2006 v CHEADLE UNITED @ 21:00pm

14/12/2006 v PUSS IN BOOTS (THU) @ 20:30pm

21/12/2006 v OZ TORNADOS @ 22:00pm

28/12/2006 v THIRSTY FC @ 20:30pm

04/01/2007 v EAT MY GOAL @ 22:00pm

11/01/2007 v NORTHERN CANARIES @ 20:30pm

18/01/2007 v ANTHONY WILDE @ 19:00pm

25/01/2007 v CHEADLE UNITED @ 20:30pm

01/02/2007 v PUSS IN BOOTS (THU) @ 20:00pm

08/02/2007 v OZ TORNADOS @ 21:30pm

15/02/2007 v THIRSTY FC @ 21:00pm

22/02/2007 v EAT MY GOAL @ 21:30pm

01/03/2007 v NORTHERN CANARIES @ 19:00pm

08/03/2007 v ANTHONY WILDE @ 20:30pm

So there are a couple of new teams, and the return of Northern Canaries which always makes for a good game. Omatha have gone seemingly, the Henry felling count is VOID. Thirsty FC finished bottom of Div 5 with the Canaries so could be of a similar standard to them.

Any thoughts.

Lets try and take the Ranger's back to their roots and start to enjoy Thursday football again!

Bramhall Rangers 6 Cheadle United 8

"...something about the Titanic that people forget...there were over 1000 miles of uneventful, very pleasurable cruising before it hit the iceberg" (Alan Partridge - Knowing me, Knowing you)

Well fate would have it that the final match of the season would be against Cheadle United, in a fight where the loser would finish not only bottom of our division, but also bottom of the entire Thursday night League!

With the Rangers award ceremony taking place that weekend, obviously people wanted to end on a high. The Rangers had traditionally been the victors in almost every encounter with this team before and you could tell certain players wanted to finish on a goal scoring high.

Cheadle United lined up with a couple of new faces, but that did not worry the Rangers who expected to end the season with a win. Right from the start of the 1st half though it became clear this would be a Cheadle United match like no other. The observations from the previous match that Cheadle United were changing there style came through and right from the word go Cheadle United conceded two fairly blatant fouls clearly playing the man not the ball. A move straight out of the Vinny Jones 87-88 FA Cup final against Liverpool play book.

A scrappy half unfolded in front of the Rangers and unlike the usual clean free flowing matches we’ve had with Cheadle, this was a stop start affair. With the bar being set so low on the violence used in the challenges things only got worse as the half went on. The Rangers were perhaps a little stunned for a while on why it had instantly turned into such a dirty game, and were slow to start retaliating. To the Rangers credit, they managed to keep fairly level headed with Mini grabbing at least two in the first half by getting on the end of passes from darting runs by Shiz down the boards.

Others scored too, but sadly my memory has let me down. In the nets, Belly somehow had a penalty against him. The intense stare from Belly put the taker off, and the shot was just wide, however Belly didn’t let his focus slip as the loose ball was poorly handled by his outfield team mates as a follow up shot was skilfully saved.

At half time the Rangers went in 4-3 up. A close half, but one they were just winning. However as the second half started, that Big Red button in the sky seemed to appear and hover above the Rangers heads begging to be pressed. Sadly Russ had pulled some muscles in the first half, but in the excitement of the game went back onto the pitch in the second. Whilst his intensions were good, the effect wasn’t as an injured hobbling Russ just couldn’t keep pace with the speedy Cheadle Players, and after a goal was conceded, he realised himself and subbed himself off permanently for the rest of the game. The Rangers were down to 6 outfield players now.

Meanwhile, the blatant fouling continued. The Rangers were giving as good as they got, which of course inevitably meant Cheadle fouled even more. As an aside, it should be noted that this was one of the poorest reffing performances I’ve witnessed. With both teams now overtly fouling, with challenges which would have got an instant red card in an FA refereed match, the best our ref could muster were free kicks. What it needed was a ref with the balls to call a halt, get every member from the two teams together and tell them that the blatant fouling stops from this moment on. That didn’t happen…

The art of fouling is an interesting one. There are a few trends that I’ve noticed from my experience of watching and playing football. Any England fan will be aware that a dirty team will target certain players on the opposition team for volume fouls. The criteria for being targeted are generally:
- Skilled players
- Players who’ve recently returned from injury
- Players with a short fuse

As such, as the second half went on, Mini found himself on the end of more than his fair share dirty fouls. Sadly, so did John. Eventually, I think it’s fair to say it became too much for him, and like Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney, he lost it and reached for the Big Red Button! After one particularly bad challenge, he got up, announced to the ref he was injured and left the pitch whilst the ball was still in play. Sadly he did this whilst shouting and screaming in somewhat of a rage at the opposition and the ref. Off the pitch, he was sadly still fuming and for most of the rest of the half, a stream of abuse could be heard being directed not at the opposition, but at one of his own team mates! I can only imagine the big boost mentally this gave to the opposition at precisely the worst moment possible as the Rangers now had no subs, and were losing, in a game that the ref was appaling, and the Rangers were only just keeping there heads above water. It was a very sad end to what had been a seasons worth of good solid performances for the chap.

The game carried on, and to the credit of the remaining players on the pitch, they held it together pretty well and showed tremendous resilience to the numerous adversities now set against them. Nev battled well and started to turn the tables on one of the opposition who was starting to show signs of getting angry, Big Pete tried to inspire the team with some flair and really started to use his physical presence, and Mini got some more goals.

The game ended, Cheadle understandably ecstatic with the win and jumping for the first time ever off the bottom. The Apprentices had truly become the Masters, but with the dirty tactics they had to use to do it, Masters of what?

The future looks uncertain for the Rangers, it was a truly soul destroying game, that emotionally drained most if not every Ranger present. One thing is certain is that with the change in style being shown to work against the Rangers, it will be used against us every time we play Cheadle United in the future.

Goals - Mini 4, Peter 1, OG 1

Nev goal watch - 51