Samford Rangers Football Club

Another perfect day for football greeted us on Saturday morning at Lyle Gray field – crisp and sunny.

After resisting the temptation to play a formation all season - to give the players the maximum creative space - we finally relented this week and played the prescribed FFA 1-3-3. The previous week’s game saw the opposition park a player on our goalie and a couple back with theirs which effectively starved us of possession, so in an effort to get more ball we “joined ‘em” .

We had only one training run this week to learn the formation and I wasn’t expecting to see any fruits from this for a few weeks, but the team executed the plan to near perfection keeping a clean sheet in their first attempt.

After last week’s lack of hunger we also worked on that at training and the “Hungry Tiger” was back in the belly this week. Jacob had 6 or 7 shots on goal in the first 5 minutes – hitting the ‘keeper a couple of times, the post once and the rest near misses – before netting his first.  We went to the break having had all the possession and our ‘keeper Connor only having touched the ball once.

At the break we switched the defence and attack and I asked for 4 more goals in the second half!

Mason took the gloves for the second half and also needed only a few touches.

We continued the second half as we ended the first and once we had three goals on the scoresheet, we pushed all the players up in the quest for our target of five goals.

Emily scored another great goal (and very nearly two), earning her a Player of the Week award.

Corban’s work in the defensive line was fabulous earning a Player of the Week award.

Sebastian scored his first ever goal (woohoo!) also earning a Player of the Week award.

Hannah’s drive forward and workrate earning her a Player of the Week award.

Mason’s goal keeping and natural positioning skills – doing stuff we haven’t practised yet! - earning him a Player of the Week award.

Nick scored yet another goal and was brilliant pushing forward from the back three when instructed earning him a Player of the Week award.

Conner’s clean sheet first half and near misses on goal earning him a Player of the Week award.

And Jacob’s three goals and absolute desire, beating the entire opposition team on a few occasions earning him a Player of the Week award.

Yes, the whole team was Player of the Week for following the plan to perfection and all turning in a great effort. What a team!

With a few players out for the second week in a row, Manchester was forced to recruit a couple of support players from another Samford team (Thanks Matthew and Callum). Despite having no reserves, Manchester dug deep and played a great game, though there were signs of fatigue towards the end of the match. Matthew Chui played the full game in goals for the second week in a row and is fast building confidence and saving plenty. Manchester gave it all and most importantly never gave up. They scored a goal in the first half, but couldn’t hold out Westside who claimed victory. Coach’s award went to Ben and “Man of the Match” was awarded to Jesse.  Well done guys!

The game started with an early goal by Mitchie but by half time Arsenal had managed to score 4 goals. The second half was scoreless with Sid stopping many attempts in goal and our team just missing also on many scoring opportunities. Player of the week was Seb Lindores with a solid game up front in the first half.

Goal scorers:

Michael 2

Seb Lindores 1

Connor 1

Following an early start for our team photo, we played Samford Blackburn.

As Blackburn had 7 players, Teague volunteered to play for the opposition and was one of their best players.

Spurs scored an early goal through Jack and remained on top for the rest of the match.  Our passing game was back with all team members looking for space.

Congratulations Jack and Ryan - both boys scored hat-tricks.  Emilio scored two and Ben one.

Ben was named player of the match due to tireless efforts up front.  Well done Ben.

It seemed like ages since we’d walked out onto the field after the holidays and last week’s washout, but it was great to be out playing football again.

Winter colds and flu knocked us around again and we had two missing from our squad this week.

The first half got away to a flyer with both teams scoring in the first minute or so. Jacob, still hot from his four goals in the last game scoring ours.

Toby had the ‘keepers gloves in the first half and was unlucky to have a couple of saves creep over the line, but once again his performance was great.

Mitchie employed the tactic of camping a player right on our goal, shadowing our ‘keeper.  So at the break we solved that puzzle by bringing Joe back to take that player out of the game, which he did to great effect.

I think we were a little rusty from not playing for a few weeks – and maybe all the rain! – and the usual hunger for the ball wasn’t as evident in this game and Mitchie got the better of us, but I’m sure it will be back next week. We’ll be working on our hunger in this week’s training.

Having said that, no-one gave up or gave an inch until the final whistle. Sebastian showed good positioning moving a bit more forward than he has in recent games and found himself in good position with the ball a few times.

Our girl-power mid-field was again in action providing a good barrier to attacks and completing some nice through balls.

Toby and Connor – who had the gloves in the second half – both showed great versatility turning in great efforts both in goal and on the field.

Nick, as I have written for just about every game this season it seems, had another great game, reading the play well, defending when he needed to and mesmerising with his footwork. Talk about Mr Consistent.

Jacob is gradually sending his dad broke, scoring three goals this game earning himself a good commission again. He continues to find himself in the right place at the right time and his desire to get the ball is sensational.

Joe earned another Player of the Week for both his early attacking work and more importantly his execution of the defensive role in the second half. With the instruction to “mark that man” he instinctively positioned himself in the correct place and did the job to the letter.

Well done team!

First game for 4 or 5 weeks after school holidays and washouts saw the boys take a while to get back into stride but by the end of the match they were firing on all cylinders. Some great teamwork was on display with many passes finding a free player and leading to goals. We welcomed Harvey Goldsmith to the team for the first time and he played very well in his first game and received the player of the week award. 

Goal scorers:

Harvey Goldsmith 3

Harvey Mercer 2

Sid Adams 2

Michael Hietala 1

Following the mid-season break and a wash out last weekend Under 10 Spurs were a little rusty at times this weekend playing against a very well drilled Narangbah United Side.

Trailing 1-0 early, Teague equalised for Spurs mid-way through the first half.  Whilst all team members tried hard, Narangbah were clinical in front of goal and ran out deserving 5-1 victors.

Declan was named player of the match.  Declan's resolute defence and organisation skills were on show again this week and kept us in the game for most of the match.

Congratulations Declan!

It was Friday 13th in all aspects except for the result!

The match started with our goal in the first minute. Then, forget about the next 78 minutes except for Gordon who did a fabulous job. The match was closed by dragging /slipping the ball slowly over the line for our winning goal just as the ref was about to blow the final whistle.

No glorious match but the points are ours.

Cup Match.

Great match of the MM team with very welcomed support of the Old Boys. Mitchie probably expected a walk in the park but they had to fight very hard for their win. Each of their goal was followed by an equaliser on the spot with two beautiful goals by Brian and Pauli scaring Mitchie quite a lot.

A penalty for Mitchi shortly before full time got them into the next round.

Well done guys and a special thanks to the Old Boys on and off the pitch for your much appreciated support.