Division One (East)
Kintbury Rangers 2 Rayners Lane 2
Saturday, 21 August 2004
Rayners Lane opened their 2004-2005 league campaign on Saturday and the main interest this season will be as to how they will compete without their top scorer for many seasons, Tommy Metcalfe, who has retired.
The opening line up against Kintbury showed a relative young line up with Darell Roper making his debut. However the backbone of the side included the experienced Tim Piper, Steve Bird and player manager, Danny Mills.The Lane enjoyed their best spell of the game in the opening ten minutes and took an early lead in the 4th minute when Mills set up Darren Gardiner who went round the keeper and finished coolly. However the home side fought their way back into the game by adopting a more physical approach and by also taking advantage of the Lane's defensive system that allowed them a lot of space on the flanks. Having gone close earlier a cross was fired into the box in the 20th minute and John Ellis gave away a penalty when the ball struck his arm. McNally gave Piper no chance with the resulting penalty. Danny Mills reverted to a flat back four before half time and as a result the Lane won more possession and in the 45th a Lee Whelan cross found the head of Mills whose fierce header beat the keeper but unfortunately struck the bar.
Half Time: 1-1
The second half was much more competitive although it was clearly evident that this was the first game of the season as there were many passing errors and mistimed tackles and the Lane had to be thankful that this applied to the finishing of the home side as their forwards missed several gilt edged chances from close range. The visitor's best chances were long range efforts and Paul Mitchell, Graham Small and Mills all went close with fierce shots. The deadlock was broken in the 74th minute, a Bird free kick was met by Mitchell and his first touch pass fell into the path of Gardiner who volleyed home. It now looked like three points would be secured but a defensive lapse ten minutes from time gave Kintbury a share of the points. A cross from the right was not attacked by the Lane defence and a McNally was able to head home unopposed. A draw was probably a fair result and it was evident that although they worked hard the Lane will need to tighten up in defence and hopefully it will only take a few games for the team to knit together into a cohesive unit.
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