Hall Road Rangers brought their three game winless run to an end on Saturday as they picked up a 3-1 victory against St Mary’s AFC at Haworth Park.

Rangers had the better of the chances in the first half. Skipper Lewis Andrew saw a long range strike flash just over the bar inside the seventh minute. Some good build up play between Dave Harrison and Luke Bullement in the 22nd minute resulted in the latter having an effort comfortably saved by St Mary’s keeper Graeme Anderson.

A few minutes later, Mason Chaffer created an opportunity for himself with a great run which led to his effort being saved by Anderson. Eventually, Rangers took the lead courtesy of an Andrew free-kick which nestled in the bottom corner of the St Mary’s net in the 39th minute.

St Mary’s saw a header go wide from a set piece in the 61st minute. Immediately after this, Rangers went up the other end of the pitch and doubled their lead as Bullement slotted the ball home to get his third goal of the season.

Tom Oliver extended Hall Road’s lead in the 66th minute with a composed finish after being picked out by a lovely long pass from Jordan Hall. However, the visitors soon pulled a goal back and denied Rangers a clean sheet.

As full-time began to approach, Rangers looked to increase their lead even further. Chaffer had a shot saved and Andrew saw his effort headed off the line by a St Mary’s defender.

MOTM- Lewis Andrew sponsored by Tony Hardy/Hop and Vine

Hall Road Rangers: Douglas, Wray, Pulford, J.Hall, Chaffer, Andrew (C), Loughton, Iversen (Salter 77’), Harrison, Bullement, Oliver (Miller 89’).

Subs Not Used: Sallis, Murray.

Rangers joint manager Leon Sewell was very happy with his side’s display:

“It’s nice to get three points on the board. That was the main aim for today.

I thought the lads listened to the instructions that were given from the off and that was to obviously keep the ball which I thought we did really, really well. The way we moved it about tired some of their players out which was good to see.

We’ve created chances yet again and we’ve taken three today which is really positive. If we can increase that ratio of goals to opportunities that we’re creating then that’ll be fantastic for us.

Relatively straightforward afternoon. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves. It got a little scrappy towards the end with the two sin bins, one for each side, but that’s part and parcel of the game.

We defended resolutely and did what we needed to do. Loads of positives.

We’ll keep going. We had a really good training session on Wednesday and that’s come into today’s game. It’s really important that we keep pushing on.

Ultimately, really pleased for the boys. We’ve got a few in house non negotiable challenges that we repeat week in, week out and we’ve ticked seven out of the eight today. That’s really positive as well.

I thought we looked really bright and really sharp today. More importantly, pleased for the players and pleased for the supporters that come down and work hard for us all to make sure that we can play football on a Saturday afternoon. Thank you to everybody.

All the best to Ricky, Tim and the boys from St Mary’s and we’ll see them again soon. Three points, job done and we go again next Saturday away to East Riding Rangers.”