Northern Rangers 1 (Palacio 76’)

Kingborough Lions 2 (T McDonald 81’, J Nugent 87’)

IC- Kingborough Lions FC

Mark Meumann 

Kingborough Lions weathered a first half barrage of Northern Rangers attacks to come away from the NTCA with all three points in their basement battle on Saturday afternoon.  Rangers appeared to be on their way to a first win of the season when they scored in the 75th minute through Jorge Palacio, but the Lions rallied to get two goals back in the final 10 minutes to win the game 2-1.

With Nick Cutherbertson and Jack Gates recovering from concussion and an ankle injury, respectively, and Sam Conway starting on the bench the Lions were up against it playing a team desperate for a win.

Rangers, under acting coach Marshall Pooley, were looking to improve their possession, decision making and finishing.  In this match they did the first two admirably, dominating territorially in the first half.  Indeed, the first 10 minutes saw several corners won with the Lions defence battling to clear the ball.  Matt Youd picked up the ball from 30 yards out and lined up a worldy but he couldn’t keep his shot down.  Moments later Geoff Wani reacted quickly to a scramble in the box but couldn’t connect cleanly with his acrobatic, sideways volley.

The three stats that were increasing at a fast rate were the fouls committed by Kingborough, corners won by Rangers and shots off target by Rangers.

The visiting team had their first real attacking effort 10 minutes in which drew Luigi Cordova off his line to chest the ball over the edge of the penalty box from the long Lions ball.

Along the wing were some ding-dong battles of Jorge Palacio vs Joel Schuth and Alex Fulton vs Shane Cartwright.  Possession was nearly all with the home team but on the occasions that Kingborough could get the ball forward Cartwright and Schuth were playing good combinations and, per coach Ian Shaw’s request, were holding up the ball long enough for teammates to join in the attack.

Rangers continued to win corners with Palacio getting his head to three of them; knocking the ball just wide in space; back across goal to Pat Lanau-Atkinson who couldn’t muster a connection and wide under pressure from Jackson Nugent.  The Lions defence were holding up well considering the constant pressure.

Going in to the rooms at halftime Rangers would surely have been ruing their many off-target shots.  Kingborough would have enjoyed the respite and the chance to re-organise their tactics.

Conway was brought in at left back from the beginning of the second half and it was Kingborough who fashioned the early chances.  Two minutes in to the half Danny Cowen produced a clever back heeled through ball which Palacio did well to clear for a corner.

On 56 minutes Nick Lanau-Atkinson had the ball at his feet, one on one with a Lions defender.  A call went out from the sidelines “he’s a left footer”.  Lanua-Atkinson duly noted this, sold a right-foot step over to his marker, jinked left further in to the box and unleashed a cracking shot which beat Mark Grace but couldn’t beat the post, the ball deflecting to safety.

Moments later Rangers sent another free kick in to the box which Palacio headed back across goal to Pat Lanau-Atkinson, who took a touch to control the ball which gave Grace a moment to burst off his line and dive at his feet to smother the shot.

Cordova had a relatively quiet first half but that changed in the second half as he was called upon frequently to bat away Kingborough corners.

Chris Downes tried to break the deadlock, first with a long range half volley before then attempting a lob from near half-way but in both instances Cordova collected comfortably.

On the 75th minute Pearce brought down Wani just outside the corner of the penalty box. Bruce Bown put in a superb free kick to the far post where the gazelle-like Palacio headed it down to finally get his goal and give the hosts the lead.

In response the Lions dialled up the pressure and their positive attitude paid dividends just six minutes later.  A curling corner almost went in to the top-right corner of the goal.  Cordova and the Rangers defence somehow conspired to knock the ball against each other, on to the cross bar and then Tom McDonald tapped the dropping ball in to the net from all of half a yard out to level the contest.

Three minutes from time, Kingborough Lions took the lead. Pearce unleashed another of his long throws all the way to the six yard box where Jackson Nugent was on hand to flick it past Cordova and steal the three points for his side. Time petered out and the visitors had done enough to win the match.

Northern Rangers demonstrated that they have most of the ingredients to compete compete at this level.  But 11 shots off target compared to 2 on target suggests one aspect where they could focus some energy.  Pooley was relatively happy with the first half but pointed to the fact that they “just couldn’t finish”.  Also of note of course was that they again conceded late in the game from a points scoring position.  “We got the goal at a funny time.  The guys probably tried to hang on rather than push on and play football. And a couple of set pieces brought us unstuck late” Pooley added.

Kingborough Lions on the other hand got their maiden win under Ian Shaw.  Shaw commented “It’s a fantastic feeling.  As a coach you want to get wins for the players…but I’m so happy for the players.  There’s a lot of effort put in today.  I think the bus trip might have slowed our first half up for a bit.”

The result will be a bitter pill for Northern Rangers to take.  With an assortment of coaching changes Rangers are doing relatively well.  A decision on a permanent coach is expected to be revealed prior to their away game against Olympia at Warrior Park in a fortnight’s time.