Faichnie on target for Rangers

Press, 21 July 1980, Page 30

Faichnie on target for Rangers

Special correspondent Auckland The Rangers striker, Gordon Faichnie; overcame atrocious conditions to present his side with two valuable Rothmans Soccer League points at Auckland yesterday. Faichnie carved through a bogged-down Manurewa defence to hammer home the only goal of the game seven minutes from full-time. Until he ploughed through the mud and rain, the weather looked likely to deadlock the two teams in a 0-0 draw. Whatever good football was produced tended to be lost in the mud or sunk in surface pools. The defenders, with John Souter for Rangers and Greg Hough for Manu-

rewa outstanding, often found that the conditions did the job in stifling attacks for them. Neil Francis and Malcolm Parker never stopped running in the Rangers attack, and Francis cracked a shot against the post in the second-half with Manurewa’s Frank van Hattum stranded. But to even it up Peter Bryson did the same at the other end against Mike Fulham, who generally had a safe, solid game in the Rangers goal. With these two shots cancelling each other out the league points looked certain to be shared, until Faichnie did his late smash-and-grab run to relieve some of the relegation tension for the Christchurch side.