Rangers were looking forward to this match against our friends the Hotspurs, primarily to test our progress against one of the better Cosmo league sides.

For the first 20 minutes or so Rangers controlled a fair bit of the play and ended up taking a one goal lead after a foul on Todd in the box resulted in a penalty that was cleanly taken by Gura. Unfortunately our possession didn’t translate into many serious threats on goal as we lacked the ability to break down the Hotspurs in the final third of the pitch and if we did get a breakthrough the ever-reliable Chris and his center half partner were there to mop up!

Spurs awoken by the Rangers early lead then applied themselves with more urgency and leveled the match when Mr. Street was left unmarked in front of the net shortly after a corner kick and he had time to trap the ball between his foot and his hand and then slam it into the net behind the exposed Alvaro.

 Rangers kept their heads up and continued to show nice skill in possession and some shifty passing ability….unfortunately it seemed every time we lost possession the Spurs quickly counter-attacked and we did no cope very well with the quality of Abbas, Esad and Mike on these quick strike attacks and they scored three more goals before half time effectively putting the game out of reach at 4-1.

We did not let the disappointment of being three goals adrift dampen our spirit and with Gura dropping into a more defensive midfield role for the second half and with Chidi taking the striker position we played the second half evenly on the scoreboard but probably edged in the possession department and even had a goal called back due to a phantom offside call. The goals that did count were scored by Spurs in another counter attack and finished off by Chidi who defied Esad’s statement that he’d never score!! Chidi will be down to Sahara to collect a bottle of whiskey from Esad this week!

In summary, a competitive game played in tremendously good spirit  (Thanks Hotspurs) with the score line perhaps flattering our opponents, however there is no doubting their finishing ability and after all that is what matters…putting  the ball in the net! For Rangers we’ve shown so far this season that we are a capable side, that holds onto the ball well and moves it freely about the pitch, but we lack quality in the striking department and have yet to remain really tight at the back for a full 90 minutes so lets keep working on the good bits of our game and remain hopeful that results will eventually come.