| Rugby
Town 4-1 Deeping Rangers |
| FA
Cup 1st Qualifying Round |
Saturday,
16th September 2006
Attendance
| 207
|
Entertainment |
|
 |
 |
Matt
Gearing sets up a first half attack with Ross
Harris in support |
Town
eased into the next round of the competition with
a comfortable victory against their opponents
from the United Counties League, in a game with
almost as much incident off the pitch as on it
last Saturday at Butlin Road.
Rugby
had retired for the half-time break with a one
goal lead against a spirited, yet generally toothless
Rangers side thanks to a Danny Hall goal. The
conclusion of the game was thrown into doubt however,
with referee A.Parker suffering a calf injury
and then adjudging himself too unfit to continue.
An
appeal from the tannoy fortunately identified
a couple of qualified officials in the crowd able
to step in to run the line, with the assistant
referee in turn taking over from the injured Parker.
However
Deeping player-manager Tuncay Korkmaz initially
did not appear keen to restart the game with the
new arrangement in place - despite the fact that
both potential replacements were in fact from
his own club!
The
gentle persuasion of a FA representative and perhaps
the threat of a hefty fine convinced Korkmaz to
continue, and with Rangers’ Secretary Paul Smith
taking up the flag, the prospect of an abandonment
and rematch from scratch on Tuesday night was
avoided.
The
Valley underlined their superiority in the second
half, thanks to goals from Delroy Gordon and a
brace from Jason Taylor, though the Peterborough
club did show feint signs of a comeback when Michael
Stevenson brought the score back to 2-1 early
in the second half.
Rugby
boss Billy Jeffrey made two changes to the side
defeated the previous weekend at Clevedon, with
Craig Herbert returning to the centre of defence
and Ross Harris filling the right-back berth with
Aaron Stringfellow moving into a central midfield
spot in place of the on-loan Tom Breward, whose
club Nuneaton refused permission for him to participate
in the game.
Town
started the game strongly with Gordon rising at
the far post after a Hall corner, only to see
his header strike the post and away to safety.
Rangers’ keeper Danny Bircham then pulled off
a fine diving save to deny a curling effort from
the edge of the box by Willis Francis.
The
breakthrough came in the 15th minute when Taylor's
cross made its way through to Danny
Hall, and he impressively smashed
home the ball from 20 yards out.
Further
chances came the home side's way in the opening
period with David Stone latching onto a defensive
error before weakly helping the ball into the
hands of the oncoming Bircham, and then late in
the half Taylor was only just unable to capitalise
on a cross to the far post from Matt Gearing.
Playing
with a front line of three attackers, Deeping
had their best spell of the game in the ten minutes
leading up to the half-time break, and their best
opportunity fell to Lee Ellison, but he blasted
over his close range effort on the turn - after
the ball had fallen to him from a corner.
After
the half an hour's extra delay, the second half
finally kicked-off and the first chance of the
half fell to Stringfellow, but Bircham was again
in fine form to deny Rugby's August Player of
the Month.
Shortly
after, on 48 minutes, Jason
Taylor increased the advantage
when he beat Bircham to a Herbert free-kick floated
hopefully into the Deeping box, and applied a
flicked header over the stranded keeper and into
the net.
Stevenson's
well-executed low strike on 52 minutes briefly
provided the away fans with some hope, but another
well-delivered Hall corner on 66 minutes again
found the head of Delroy
Gordon, and this time he directed
his header the right side of the post to restore
the two goal cushion.
The
Valley controlled the play for the rest of the
game, and Stone was unfortunate not to win a penalty
when Michael Goode tackled him clumsily near the
by-line. Hall was also unlucky not to add to his
early goal, with one shot from the edge of the
penalty area only just failing to hit the target
and a similarly powerful effort bringing another
fine stop from Bircham.
The
late introduction of Matt Wells provided further
impetus to Town's attacking play, and a place
in the 2nd qualifying round was sealed when Jason
Taylor was on-hand with a simple
finish to the youngster’s cross from the right
hand side with game in added time.
Report
by Jon Venner.
|
