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Rangers' Ezekial stuns Dandy Town

Southampton Rangers 1 Dandy Town 0Ezekial Stoneham tore the heart out of Dandy Town when his goal after 67 minutes sent firm favourites Dandy Town crashing out of the FA Cup during this rather undistinguished clash at Southampton Oval yesterday.Just home from school in England Stoneham’s inclusion in the squad was timely because he delivered the goods in a contest that looked to be heading for a stalemate with both teams finding it tough to pierce the other’s defence.Combining with striker Dennis Russell, Stoneham supplied the finishing touch that saw him fire home the winner from close range, the inevitable go-head goal from the home side coming as little surprise to the crowd who had watched Rangers call the tune of play for majority of the contest.Some Town fans could be heard muttering it was one of their team’s worst performance of the season but while that is yet to be determined, it clearly was a day when they played with no sign of sparkle whatever. While skipper Raymond Beach had a few good moments when he worried the defence their most outstanding player was goalkeeper Antoine Lightbourne who, despite fighting off an injury for most of the second half, made a few fine saves to deny the home side.As if their poor performance wasn’t enough Town also had the misfortune of having Jared Peniston sent off in injury time for a second bookable offence.Rangers on the other hand underlined their supremacy for the outset and completely overwhelmed their sub-standard opponents during the first 15 minutes when Town’s defence was sluggish and very vulnerable to the fine approach work by the home side.Stoneham made his presence felt after just eight minutes when Town keeper Lightbourne dived to turn his close-range shot around the post. With Travis Wilkinson and Stoneham behind most of the Rangers’ build-up the home side pinned down Town for awhile and always looked like being the most likely to score first.Town’s first threat came after 19 minutes and it came from left full-back Fabian Frankson but his fierce 24-yarder into the chest of goalkeeper Sean Perinchief was well handled. Five minutes later Beach sent a crisp shot which Perinchief blocked.Then after 35 minutes an error by centre-back Jahma Charles let in Beach who was unable to finish off with only the advancing goalkeeper to beat, failing to lob it over his head.However, most chances were to fall to Rangers whose forwards put a few shots wide and high of goal and Kwame Tucker slamming a shot a Lightbourne from 16 yards and left full-back Khimo Harrison’s thunderous dipping shot forcing Lightbourne to sensationally tip it over at the last moment.The second half came came alive with Town showing a greater appetite for goals. Peniston sent a hard struck 24-yarder just over after 48 minutes and Beach forced Perinchief to make a reflex save with his snap shot five minutes later.But Rangers ventured forward at will and Russell forced Lightbourne to tip his shot from 16 yards over then substitute Mike Williams raced down the right flank and crossed only to see Russell head poorly from close range.The inevitable opening goal came afterwards to the surprise of nobody since Rangers were in full flow as Town continued to look mediocre.There were more chances coming but neither produced goals. Beach headed substitute Lashun Dill’s cross over from 10 yards and then substitute Janeiro Tucker creating the opening for Russell to shoot but the striker had his angled shot tipped around the post by a diving Lightbourne.Southampton Rangers: S.Perinchief; A.Raynor (M.Williams, 51 min), K.Simmons, J.Mallory, J.Charles, K.Harrison; T.Wilkinson, J.Dill, E.Stoneham; D.Russell, K.Tucker (J.Tucker, 75 min).Subs not used: D.Charles, J.Caisey, Y.Bean.Yellow Cards: T.Wilkinson, K.Tucker, J.Dill.Dandy Town: A.Lightbourne; J.Butterfield (Tyman Daniels, 53 min), G.Dyer, K.Tucker, F.Frankson; J.Peniston, Seion Darrell (S.Tuzo, 85 min), D.Ming; J.Swan, R.Saltus (L.Dill, 65 min), R.Beach. Subs not used: Tristan Daniels, P.Richardson.Red cards: J.Peniston.Referee: Anthony Francis.Man of the match: E.Stoneham.