Semi finals - NCL Cup:

What a fantastic bonanza for the grange fans tonight. Two teams, both claiming the grange as a home, are here to battle it out for a spot in the NCL Cup final with the Wanderers, who beat the Devies 3-2 on Tuesday Night.

Confusion reigned early on as Marko and Eroy arrived at the ground to find 2 junior teams lined up on the main field in full strips warming up in front of a crowd of 40, in what looked liked an official game about to kick off. Further more when QSF Players down for training thought they were going to use the top pitch for a run around. An expected Peter Carter came wandering down to announce a Fuck Up, or should we say dilemma delay in that the juniors are running late and our kick off was 30min later into the night.

To turn water into mud, we found out after all signing the team sheet, that we could not proudly don the Rangers home strip "Robertson Transport" but had to begrudgingly sport the Grange Thistle Official colours due to a colour clash with EFI’s strip. After protesting that EFI was the officially drawn "Away" Team and should be made to change we were informed that "The Club" does not trust EFI to give the jerseys back. Take it as a compliment or not, the rangers rolled onto the park in the white/black and orange strip home to the crudy Grange Thistle side.

A great start by the Rangers saw EFI pump long balls into Eroy’s zone for the first 20 minutes. A jittery Eroy and backline that changes members more frequently than a diahorea specialist changes undies, saw some speculator EFI long balls nearly result in some goals. A stern talking by the Coach settled the defensive team and by 30 minutes in the EFI attack was dealt with by more expected skill and settled Keeper and backline.

Tragedy though did occur not once but twice for Eroy and his rear guard during this match. The first event was probably about 25 min through the first half. A corner was earned by EFI and crossed into Eroy zone, a confident call and an oncoming keeper saw me about to take a fairly mediocre cross. Half a second later and four men entangled saw me with no ball in hands and Marko screaming "Eroy…the ball….behind u". At this point just about all rangers and EFI players within 5 metres of the pill did not know where the ball had spat out to. I turned around with a sickening feeling in my gut at the tone of marks cry, In vain I tried to keep the ball from crossing the line but to no avail. It seemed like the ball was magnetically drawn to the net.

Grangers did not go crestfallen or quiet into the night however. Plenty of good talk led by Eroy saw the Rangers dominate a so called Good first division team in EFI. Plenty of chances and way more shots than EFI, saw grangers second half open brilliantly. Jon was the first to advertise his hunger and skill in front of goal by jamming a superb header to wards the EFI goal. Only a superhuman save by the EFI keeper saw jons transaction not accepted. Jon was to continue to force deposits EFI’s way with numerous long range shots and midfield domination. Merrick was up to his old tricks. Striker turning provider to unleash some great midfield shots and talent saw an unselfish peisley make his mark on the game. !5 minutes before time and slowly plugging away at EFI saw tactics remarkably change for both sides. For EFI everyone but their two forwards were playing defence and it was clear that being 1-0 up the long ball and all out defence might see them with victory. Grange However called upon Andy "Beckham" Polichronis for inspiration from the backs and to inject his freekicking ability into the attack. A nice shot plus deflection saw the Rangers earn a well deserved goal and level it 1-1 with about 10 to go. A quick reminder by mezza that "1-1 is not a result for us" saw grange hunger for an outright victory with only Eroy hoping for a penalty shoot out. The determination seemed to be in Rangers favour as it seemed they would either go 2-1 up or go penalty shooting for EFI were tired and spent. But the second tragedy was now just about ready to come like a honey mooners dick with his new bride. A continuous reign of attacking corners for rangers saw a cocky eroy up to half way to spur on his team. "LETS HAVE A GOAL RANGERS"……."LETS HAVE A GOAL RANGERS"……………"LETS HAVE AN OWN GOAL EFI" was yelled by the nieve eroy. "Get back into ya goal box you stupid keeper!" was yelled back out to eroy from the EFI subs bench. The grangers corner was fired in and cleared by EFI into a long ball that saw the EFI Forwards and Rangers Defences scramble. Eroy perhaps making the biggest mistake in his life, made direct eye contact with nicko, the closest defender to the long ball. A mental message was received by eroy in that eye contact and it was "Eroy im fucken dead tired and wont be making that ball" now wether or not nicko transmitted that message I don’t know but it was the one received. I came out for the ball. Some 20 or so yards outta me box I was fully committed, and by the time I had arrived at the spot nicko had also met me there. Shouting for the ball nicko backed away to let me have it and not hearing a call from the rangers and knowing we were 1-1 I thought "best thing to do would be long ball it back up the field". The long ball attempt turned into a fluff and landed at the feet of an EFI forward. I was shamed………… "Have a shot Baden" was called by an EFI Team mate and I knew he was going to have a go. "Just block the shot Harry" I yelled to hazler closest defender to Baden. Hazler must of misheard as he backed off and gave the EFI forward time to line up a shot. He took the shot, and I knew it had beaten me and was on target. I was sick in the gut and the flight of the ball seemed to go on for an hour. I was crestfallen…………..but then a miracle occurred. Andy appeared behind the ball ready to stop it from going in. My heart restarted ……….my eyes started shining again……my shame to bear was lifted……….hope was restored to the galaxy………….or was it. In what seemed like an easy task at hand, only needing to trap, clear or nock the ball of course….it didn’t happen. The ball went through Andy’s legs. EFI had won their spot into the finals and Rangers were disgusted.

The after match bar gathering was dirty. Their were talks of Eroy "Hanse Cronje" Match fixing for EFI and the like. Easter was just around the corner and Rangers welcomed the chance for a break, thinking about their past errors and future tasks at hand. The first of which will be the reigning champs Wanderers, unbeaten in the league and unbeaten in the Cup.

Will rangers lift like they have with the absences they have and play at their usual quality or will Wanderers hand out another 6-0 defeat as they did last year. Stay tuned next Friday night for the action…..from all here in Australia……im paul dempsey…goodnight