Stafford Town FC vs Stafford Rangers
1 - 1
27 April 2021 · North West Counties<br>South
Home friendly match played on 27 April 2021.
Kicked off at 7:45 PM
1-1
vs Stafford Rangers
Home friendly match
Stafford Rangers brought a mixed side consisting of 1st team trialists and the core of their development team to Evans Park on Tuesday evening. The visitors had reached out for the game and Town slotted this extra one in to look at a couple of new faces themselves whilst also giving lads returning from injury a bit more game time.
Rangers started by far the better side, controlling large spells of possession and having success down their right wing. A tactical reshuffle to a back four reduced the space the lively no.9 was exploiting and Town steadily grew into the game in the remaining 20 minutes of the 1st half.
The deadlock was broken around the half hour mark when the hosts midfield was caught in possession, the counter attack was swift and as the ball carrier looked to unleash his shot from the edge of the box, Kaz Danillian looked to make amends but only succeeded in scything his opponent to the ground. After some debate it was Jay Ford who stepped up and scored with a powerful drive that took a slight deflection off a head in the wall to deceive Ryan Pratt in the Town goal.
Several changes were made at half time and for the third game in a row Town put in a much improved 2nd half performance. All in red calmed down and were making better ball retaining decisions causing the Rangers players a few more problems as well as making them work harder for possession.
The game was deservedly levelled up when Kyle Ashman danced his way into the left hand side of the penalty area, close control saw him sell his marker a dummy who duly took the bait and tripped Ashman resulting in the award of a spot kick. The experienced Sean Kinsella made no mistake calmly converting into the bottom right corner.
The introduction of Peter Tautscher continued to give the visiting centre halves more to do than they'd had previously and the big strikers presence continued to be a threat for the remainder of the contest.
Things finished 1-1 which overall was about right and a good workout for both camps.
Match highlights on our YouTube channel are found here: https://youtu.be/iIRiJVqsxAA