Bramhall Rangers 3 Thirsty FC 4

It’s becoming more and more common in football these days that due to cold, wet and frosty winter’s clubs replace their football pitches. This season alone has seen Bolton and Chelsea do it in the Premiership, and Birmingham in the Championship were fined after they replaced their pitch but it didn’t settle enough and their game was called off.

For the past two weeks Powerleague have been hinting at replacing their pitches with a ‘5th generation Astroturf’ pitch. Anyone who has played on Pitch One at Powerleague knows how needed this has been!

Yesterday a small select group of the Rangers players were given their first chance to test this new surface, their game against Thirsty FC was moved from Pitch 6, which was one of the old style surfaces, to pitch 4 with this new 5th generation stuff. It looked like very dark grass. Running out my first thoughts were it was a little too long, and as such it would hold the ball up more. We were advised from the team playing on the pitch before hand that the ball didn’t run as quickly, and that long range shooting was a lot more difficult. But it was exciting times, and the team was looking forward to playing on the new surface. Nev expressed a desire to try out the new surface with a sliding tackle, however would he get his chance during the game, despite the move still being illegal?

As mentioned it was a small select group that were available for the match against Thirsty. Belch returned to the goal, Nev shook off an earlier in the week knee injury to play and Pie made his return outfield. Shiz, only a couple of days after a visit to a sports physiotherapist to check on his odd length legs, was also playing along with Peter. No subs, however Thirsty also turned up with just the 5, and so we were away.

The first half was quite a close cagey affair, Belch was standing up well in his return to the Rangers goal and the outfield players were defending courageously. A few chances fell their way too, however none were taken.
Halfway through the first half though, and Thirsty got a strike of luck. A powerful shot from quite a wide angle went straight at Belch managed to push the ball up and over the bar. Only he had misjudged where he was stood in his goal area, and instead of the ball ending up behind to goal and away to safety, it dropped down into the net. It was an unfortunate slice of bad luck on behalf of Belch and the Rangers, but they didn’t let their heads drop.

As the half was drawing to a close Rangers pushed on. Pete crashed a shot against the post, before a second shot from him was pushed away by the keeper, into the path of the oncoming Shiz, who calmly dispatched it into the back of the net.

It was deserved for the Rangers who had played well in the first half. Half time came, and it was only 1-1, probably one of the lowest scoring halves we have had. We collected ourselves, caught our breath and just encouraged ourselves to keep going, playing as we had been.

As is the Rangers way though, for some reason the spell just after half time at the beginning of the second we seem to always concede. This game was no difference, and we were quickly 3 goals behind as Thirsty took control. Despite these three goals the Rangers were still playing and battling well. That was all that Thirsty had to show, and for the remainder of the game it was the Rangers battling to get back. That’s not to say the Rangers had it all their own way – Belch was playing well in net, and the defending was of a pretty high quality.

Pete fired a second goal for the Rangers as they kept pushing, and shortly afterwards he crashed a second shot against the post.

Then Nev decided it would be time to attempt his sliding tackle, when as one of the Thirsty players was getting away from him he lunged in. Incredibly, no foul was given and the game continued. However Nev showed after the game that the new surface still causes some damage to your leg, despite not being quite so hard as the previous surface…

Anyway the game was ebbing and flowing, and then Pete had another shot spilled by the keeper right into the path of Shiz who once again calmly placed the ball home. That was 4-3, and there were 5 minutes to go…

Rangers pushed on, this goal seemed to give them a new burst of life while Thirsty seemed to be tiring really quickly. We pushed on, Pie smashed a shot against the inside of the post, and it seemed like it wouldn’t be long before we were level. Unfortunately we just ran out of time, the final whistle went and it was all over. To be honest I think had we played another 5 minutes we would have got another goal, and then who knows…

But it was a great performance by the 5 Rangers boys, and the new surface was definitely a bonus. I think it will certainly benefit our game. The ball runs a lot slower and I think that will be to our benefit.

Final score: Bramhall Rangers 3 Thirsty FC 4

Goals: Shiz (2), Peter (1)