Hall Road Rangers vs Gedling MW
Buildbase FA Vase First Qualifying Round
Saturday September 9
Haworth Park, Kick off 3pm
By Ollie Harsley
Photo courtesy of Lee Myers
Photo: Hall Road celebrate Sam Belcher’s wonder goal which won the points at Barton last week. This week further celebrations will see them advance in the FA Vase
ATTENTION turns to the cup this weekend as Hall Road Rangers welcome Gedling Miners Welfare to Haworth Park as they contest an FA Vase First Qualifying Round match.
The Miners are in the East Midlands Counties League, and currently occupy 10th place in that division.
The final of this competition will be at Wembley next May and the winners of this match will face either Skegness Town or Sleaford in the Second Qualifying Round.
Hall Road have a chequered history in this competition, the furthest they have ever reached in the FA Vase, is the 3rd Round.
They reached the 2nd Round last season after memorable away wins at West Allotment Celtic, Silsden and finally Congleton Town but were eliminated from the competition after a home defeat to Bottesford Town.
A similar sort of cup run will be welcomed for Rangers due to the financial rewards and a break from league competition, following Tuesday night’s home defeat against AFC Mansfield.
Gedling will arrive without any feeling of trepidation as they have started well in the East Midlands Counties League.
The visitors will come into this game with an underdog tag as Hall Road have the advantage of being at home but The Miners do possess many goal scoring threats in their ranks.
The strike force of Ryan Plummer and Jack Jepson has produced a combined total of 10 goals so far this season with Jepson also providing 3 assists.
This is an area where Hall Road will have to concentrate on defensively in order to ensure they progress into the next round of the competition.
One player to keep quiet in the Gedling Miners midfield is Jay Knight who has scored a couple of goals so far this season and he isn’t afraid of making attacking bursts from the centre of midfield so he will also need to be closely monitored by Hall Road’s centre midfield pairing.
This is a chance for Hall Road to embark on a run in the FA Vase, it would be a welcome distraction from the league games and it allows for a little bit of squad rotation if Dave Ricardo wishes to freshen his starting eleven up, especially in a busy September which kicked off with a home defeat at home to AFC Mansfield on Tuesday night, and another home game on Tuesday evening against Liversedge.
Despite having the better of the chances and a late Jack Binns goal chalked off for offside on Tuesday night, Rangers slipped to an Ollie Fearon second half goal so Dave Ricardo and his assistant Bill Gill will be hoping to return to winning ways at the first time of asking.
It is also an opportunity for The Miners’ joint managers, Chris Marks and Stuart Robinson, to see if their squad can surprise their opposition and cause a mini upset so early in this competition.
Match Sponsor – Kinetic Resources
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