Rangers top of league table

Press, 31 May 1982, Page 20

Rangers top of league table

Rangers increased its lead in the Hertz regional soccer league with a 1-0 win over the bottomplaced team, Burndale, on Saturday. the win gives Rangers a fourpoint advantage over Nomads, which beat Halswell, 3-2. Last week's second-ranked team, Cashmere Wanderers, slipped back a place after losing to Woolston, 1-2, and in the remaining matches, Christchurch United Reserves beat Shamrock, 2-1, Western drew with South Canterbury, 0-0. and Technical drew with’ New Brighton, 1-1. Woolston’s win over Cashmere was a much-needed moralebooster for the former national league side, according to its cocoach, Trevor Reece. “It is something of a turning point for us — we badly needed to win," he said. Reece's side was tumbled out of the Chatham Cup last week when it was beaten by Western and it has had some patchy results in the league. On Saturday, however, the team’s front three, Mike Millward, Derek Jones and Stan McGaffin, began to work better with the mid-neld and the result was a big improvement, Reece said. “We had lacked cohesion before, but against Cashmere we had a lot of movement up front and it made a lot of a difference." Reece felt the match was kept defensively tight by both sides. The midfield players had an even battle although Paul Jarman and Gus Neaves were especially strong for Cashmere. "We matched them though - the only difference was up front,” he said. Woolston was on top for most of the match and survived a hectic finish from Cashmere which produced a goal to Mick Orton from an overhead kick at close range six minutes from the final whistle. The Woolston goals came from Derek Jones, who nodded a Millward corner past Mark Hayston

after 28 minutes, and Millward, who scored from 10m out after 70 minutes.

Rangers won its eighth consecutive game after a Gerard Kemp goal early in the second half set up by Neil Francis. The Rangers captain. Scott Dewars shot deflected off the crossbar in the first spell. Dewar came close again after 88 minutes, hitting wide from a corner kick. Burndale, which had won its two previous matches, came close with an attempt by Rod Renfrew in the second half.

The Nomads striker. Mike Banks, steered his side past Halswell with some good headwork which allowed him to score three goals. Nomads led after 14 minutes

when a Banks header caught a deflection and beat the goalkeeper. Trevor Cliff. Banks scored again after 60 and 67 minutes, with Dave Allen and Wayne Burt (a penalty) scoring for Halswell.

The South Canterbury goalkeeper, Stewart Walker, made some brilliant saves to keep his team in contention against the more highly-rated Western A late goal enabled Christchurch United to keep up its resurgence at Spreydon Domain. John Ellis and Scott Sinclair scored for the w-inners, while Jim Small scored after 10 minuses for Shamrock. Technical’s Graham Ford equalised after 73 minutes against New Brighton after three shots hit the bar.