Round 2:

"Greetings soccer fans and welcome to match number two of the northside commercial league soccer for the season of the new millenium. We have the two premier sides of last years division 2 set to battle it out here in a few minutes. Its an important match for the Roosters. They'll be looking for a strong victory over Rangers to make up for the loss of the premiership from last year. Ranger will like wise be looking for a win to establish dominance over the runners up and also to get some points on the board.

Pitch Conditions are reasonable. Weather is fine and warm. Roosters have the home advantage and as such the fans are hear to voice their support. Only one fan is here tonight for the rangers and he stands in a solo vigil. Wait a minute, the fan is actually a rangers player....in fact its their coach Russell Dux, otherwise known among the team as ruskel or rusky (who made a few promising runs to the toilet with some stomach complaints). The ground itself is lumpy and well compacted and i bet it would acheive the 98% optimum dry density required of road bases if tested. i'd hate to be a goal keeper on this turf tonight.

Line Up for Rangers
And heres the official starting line up nominated by Coach Dux for the
rangers tonight :
Stirling, Peisley, Best, Parton, Crilly, Anthony, Policronis, Hines, Campbell, Peter, Eroy

The tallman Stirling up front partnerd by peisley the provider in their usual roles of forwards, no surprises there. Besty moves into a start at left midfield which is a new change accompanied by regulars Parton and Crilly in the centre of the park with Anthony out on the right wing. Dux has selected a strong midfield force with plenty of options on the wings
with anthony and besty. The defence line up consists of policronis on the left and campbell on the right with Hines central, nice and strong there, but a new recruit for the rangers is peter in a sweeping role tonight. looks like dux is still feeling out a couple of alternate positions with the new talent in the side, overall plenty of depth in all areas. The two things lacking for the Rangers tonight seems to be subs and fans, both of which the Roosters seem to be in abundance of.

Kick Off in Review. (apologies from Guest Commentator Eroy, not sure about
goals or order of them)

Well, things looked well for the rangers from the first blow of the silver whistle. IT seemed like roosters still thought we were in pre-season friendlies with rangers midfield dominating heavily and the forawrd line getting plenty of space to work in. before 10 minutes had past up Anthony had scored twice for the rangers and combined with our confidence we were 8 foot tall and bullet proof. Our touches, control, possession and passes were spot on and it was good to see our quality returning from last season. Our creativity was also good with plenty of fresh attacking plays and runs from wings and centers. The third goal came from a great run from merrick taking on the defence and beating a few down the right wing and then belting it back square for dave to tap in. At about this stage the fact of having no linesman was starting to show, with the roosters thinking the off side trap would work all night they were sorely mistaken and punished hard. three goals up and the roosters started whinging to the ref for offsides that never came. to the refs credit he was fit and got into good positions to have a good view of wether or not offside was an issue.

Shortly after but before 30 minutes had passed rob parton found the net for rangers 4th goal. at this stage I hadnt even seen the roosters mount an attack that got them within 30 feet of the goal. Staying warm and alert was evidently going to be my problem as a solid backline directed by peter and a hard working all round team that went seeking goals seemed to be the formula for the night.

Minutes before half time, anthony found his third and it was obvious to all, roosters included that the game had already been won. but rangers were also out there to improve from there last 2nd half shambles where the team
goes to sleep and the opposition get a few back, so with the game firmly won we concentrated on possion and domintaion for the full 90. With such good attack plays our forwards were at times surprised to find themselves with so much time when they were in shooting range. A few easy chance were squandered by peisley and stirling in the results of these events, with a memorable free kick opportunity that went screaming off into the clouds rather than toward the roosters goal from merrick, and davo trying to chip rather than tap into a free net. later on also saw the forwards denied some easy chances with stirlo doing a dancing twist to fire a shot that missed by millimeters when he could have had an easy attempt with the left foot into an empty net.

However the rangers accepted this and moved on to consolidate more attacking play. The backs started to find confience moving forward to support their forawrds and this lead to some fresh and unexpected attacks for roosters.
It was excellent to see that when the backs did go forward the midfielders were there to cover for them and not rushing headlong into the fray with them.

The last goal off the half came from a great one two from merrick to anthony on the right, with anthony firing in a great cross for dave to smash home in a non-existant roosters defensive area.

Kick Off Second Half

The sceond half saw only one goal scored for each team, with roosters having a mere consolation penalty kick, setup by two rangers players. The villians for the rangers were andy and russell both going up to header away a free corner cross when they both fluffed it and it fell to a roosters man 8 yards out. a scrappy derby saw three rangers deck the poor rooster and the ref had no choice but to award a penalty spot kick. A stationary eroy was unable to read the kick and the roosters earnt their only goal for the night.

The ranger stuck their hands out once more for a bit of glory, with ray having a great run into enemy lines and then smartly cutting it back for dave to crack in and find his 3rd goal.

The match ended 7-1 to the rangers with the most work done all night by eroy from walking on and off the pitch. well done all rangers.

Quote of the match: "You guys look like Manchester United against Fiorentina". The Ref said to me a half time.