Jinx continues

Press, 1 April 1985, Page 44

Jinx continues

KLM Cashmere continued its jinx on Hurricane Rangers when it won the final of the Rangiora preseason soccer tournament, 2-1, at Rangers Park yesterday. Rangers have been unable to beat Cashmere on the last eight occasions the clubs have met in Hertz League or Rangers tournament matches. There was nothing fortuitous about Cashmere’s success yesterday.

Playing into a chilly breeze in the first-half, Cashmere played clever, enterprising soccer against a Rangers team which, with the exception of a brief spell shortly after its goal, lacked sharpness in attack and was guilty of some dreamy defensive work. With the bustling Mark Smith spearheading the attack, Cashmere produced some movements ot top quality, while its defence, with Mark Lewis and Josh te Kaat establishing a dominance over their opposing strikers, Simon Myers and Brent Berry, was rarely

threatened.

Rangers’ central defensive pairing of Alan South and James Margaritis will develop into one of the best in the southern league, but there were some edgy moments in the final, particularly for Margaritis, playing as sweeper. The young Rangers goalkeeper, Alistair McCosh, was involved in both Cashmere’s goals. In the sixth minute, Smith was brought down by McCosh’s clumsy challenge as he tried to control the ball after being left unmarked. 'Drew Hendrie scored from the penalty spot. Much of the first-half had a kick-and-rush look, with long balls being pumped , forward to two sets of speedy front men. Smith drove the ball over the cross-bar to end a particularly impressive move, while Angus Neave’s low angled shot cannoned off a post and Paul Harrison’s shot from the rebound was well blocked. lan Cowan almost restored the situation with a

strong 25m volley, which had the Cashmere goalkeeper, Kevin Nicholls, scrambling. Rangers did equalise 20 minutes after half-time, when Grant Hughes flicked the ball on for Geoff Blackburn. His shot hit the advancing Nicholls, lobbed up in the air and just under the cross-bar. Just when extra time looked certain, Rangers gave away the sort of goal which brings on nightmares. McCosh rolled the ball out to Margaritis. The back pass was weak, the aggressive Smith tore in, got his boot to the ball and nudged it out of McCosh’s hands and over the goalline.

Woolston W.M.C. finished third in the tournament after a 2-1 win over Nomads United in the cur-tain-raiser. Graham Dacombe and Mike Millward scored Woolston’s goals, both in the first-half, while Bruce Scott, with a cracking drive from a free-kick, scored for Nomads.