Hall Road Rangers 2, Reckitts 1 (aet)

Haworth Park

East Riding Senior Cup Second Round

Tuesday November 7

By Lee Myers

Hall Road Rangers came up against tough opposition on Tuesday evening as they entertained Humber Premier League ‘big-boys’ AFC Reckitts at Haworth Park.

It took until deep into extra time for substitute Chris Spinks to grab the winner and send Rangers through to the quarter finals in a gruelling game in
heavy rain.

As the rain fell and the flood lights came on at Haworth park manager Bill Gill was aware of the threat posed by Reckitts, 2nd in the Humber Premier and with a host of ex Hall Road Rangers players in their ranks Reckitts would be no push over.

James Piercy struck first for Rangers putting them into a commanding early on 9 minutes.

Surrounded by many of the Rangers reserves and youth side players, Captain for the night, Piercy led from the centre of defence and showed quality throughout.

As the game progressed in poor conditions and substitutions were made, it appeared the game would stay at 1-0 with only one or two cut chances falling either way.

James Hitchcock in the Rangers goal made two critical point blank saves to keep Rangers in it and give the Senior Cup a shock result.

With the seconds frittering away Alex Stock thought he had secured the win with his first senior goal only to be flagged off-side. Rangers were punished when quick from the restart, Reckitts raced up the pitch to grab the equaliser through Jamie Bradshaw.

Using their fourth substitution, Chris Spinks danced onto the sodden turf to grab the winner in the 115th minute, and his 11th goal of the season.

The only sour note came as Piercy, solid throughout came down heavily from a header to injure his leg.

After the game manager Bill Gill was delighted with the display from the Rangers young guns:

“The young lads where a credit to themselves and the Club last night” said Gill.

“We selected seven lads who were 16-18 years old and like I said before the game there was no doubt we had enough to win the game, but it was more about the conditions and the opposition.

The lads scored early and had something to protect, and after that we have had three clear chances to see the game off before half time.

We also scored late on from a very slick move but was only to be ruled off side and they then went straight up the other end and equalised. So probably shape experience and concentration got the better of us for five minutes of the full game.

For me this was a great opportunity to test the youths character and I saw this as a good lesson and not a negative thing, they all reacted well and again created the best chances late on as the character was tested again when we went down to ten men.

This was another test and the lads saw it through with a late winner from first team substitution Chris Spinks.

Overall it wasn’t about the result it was about the performance and the character of the young lads coming through and they did extremely well, it’s great to be part of a club that are developing these local lads for the future.”

Rangers next test will be the arrival of Pontefract Collieries in the second round of the FA Vase at Haworth Park on Saturday.

Kick off is 3pm.