North Village 1

Southampton Rangers 1

Southampton Rangers kept their slim hopes of avoiding relegation alive with a hard fought draw at North Village yesterday.

Erin Simons put Rangers ahead in the eighth minute, with Zenawi Bowen equalising for the home side 20 minutes from the end.

A tense affair was punctuated with spells of possession for both sides, although chances were few and far between and those that materialised were invariably wasted by two average teams.

Of the two Rangers will feel the more aggrieved at having come away without a win, although Village will point to the stunning last minute save that Jason Smith, the Rangers goalkeeper, made to the deny the home side victory at Bernard Park.

The draw leaves Rangers four points from safety with three games remaining, although Dawud Tucker, their coach, remains optimistic that his side can avoid the drop.

“We’ve been pleased with our team’s effort the last two games where we have tied Dandy Town and today North Village,” he said.

“We’re having some success because we are digging deep and leaving everything on the pitch. We are trying to maintain our focus by keeping things simple and not trying to do too much. If we keep doing this we’ll be OK.”

Rangers opened the game’s scoring courtesy of a defensive blunder by Rai Simons, the Village defender.

Simons’s attempted back-pass to Detre Bell, the Rams goalkeeper, was too soft allowing Erin Simons, the Rangers striker, to swoop in and intercept the pass. Simons rounded the advancing Bell and slotted the ball into an empty net.

The goal seemed to energise the Rangers as they switched gears and began to apply pressure, putting the Rams on the back foot, time and again.

While the Rangers seemed to find their rhythm Rams struggled, seemingly out of sync with their young charges.

Rangers came dangerously close to doubling their score when Ezekiel Stoneham sent Simons through, only for Bell to make a fantastic save as Simons blistering shot rocketed towards the goal.

Rams had some opportunities of their own, but failed to take them and left the pitch at half-time a frustrated, dejected bunch.

Looking to get some momentum going Rams made a double substitution in the 54th minute, bringing on veterans Keishen Bean and Jason Lee for youngsters, Jahzardae Samuels and Enyche Zuill.

The move paid immediate dividends and the game then began to swing in Village’s favour.

Bowen finally got the breakthrough in the 70th minute, when Pierre Smith’s pass found him unmarked in the penalty area and Bowen calmly placed the ball beyond Jason Smith’s reach.

Sensing an opportunity to win Rams began playing with a greater sense of urgency but could find no way past a Rangers defence that bent but refused to break.

Richard Todd, the Village coach, was full of praise for his young side, and said their performance bode well for the future.

“We are trying to bleed our younger players a bit more right now to get them prepared to be better players for next season,” he said. “This is all part of the process in making them better individually while improving the quality of the team for the future.”

TEAMS

Scorers

North Village (Bowen 70)

Southampton Rangers (Simons 8)

North Village (4-4-2): D Bell — T Wilson, R Sampson, P Parsons, V Tankard — Z Bowen, J Samuels (sub: K Bean, 54min), D Daniels, N Smith (sub: S Hollis, 62) — E Zuill (sub: J Lee, 54), P Smith.

Substitutes not used: Kion Knights, K Lewis, Kyler Knights. Booked: P Smith

Southampton Rangers (4-3-3): J Smith — A Raynor, J Dyer, E Stoneham, S Swan — K Symonds, E Simons, K Simmons — A Bean, N Smith, S Williams (sub: N Mello, 75). Booked: J Smith, Raynor.

Referee: R Cann