Meir KA 0 Stafford Rangers 4
Pre-Season Friendly
At: Kings Park, Hilderstone Road
Kick-off: 7-00 pm
Attendance: 130 (headcount)
Weather: dry with sunny spells
Meir KA's Kings Park ground is certainly a fine place to watch a match on a dry and sunny Tuesday evening in mid-July. There is plenty of greenery all around this rural location and the lush pitch was in perfect condition. The home side, members of the Midland Combination Premier Division, were certainly pleased to host Blue Square Premier opposition in the shape of Stafford Rangers.
The ground is located a mile or so south of Meir Heath (and 100 yards north of the Black Lake Inn) on Hilderstone Road (B5066) which runs from Hilderstone to Meir. There is a spacious car park with the entrance at the far end away from the road. Entering the ground through the turnstile near one corner of the pitch, there is an red-painted pavilion to the left which houses the changing rooms and bar. To the right behind the near goal, is a setaed stand and only the near touchline is an area of covered standing.
Once the action got underway, Stafford opened the scoring just before the interval through Marco Adaggio. They added three more goals in the second half courtesy of Pav Suhaj, Steve Hopkinson and Adaggio again to maintain their unbeaten start to their 2007/08 pre-season campaign.
Stafford got the game underway attacking the covered seated stand end of Kings Park. Meir, playing their first pre-season game, went close to opening the scoring on the quarter hour. Darren Johnson broke clear into the Boro area and rounded keeper Danny Alcock. The striker went for goal only to see the speedy Djoumin Sangare slide in and clear the ball at the expense of a corner.
With Wayne Daniel, Nathan Talbott and Nathan Smith all missing, Rangers took a while to get into their stride but proceeded to dominate from the midpoint of the first half onwards. Awarded a free-kick just outside the Meir area for a foul on Neil Grayson, Tom Ingram curled the ball around the wall and Richard Armison pulled off a superb save to turn the ball round a post. Grayson powered a header over from the resulting corner.
Kevin Street, continuing his comeback from a long-term injury, twice went close around the half-hour mark and Richie Sutton curled another effort wide before Stafford broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute. The ball bobbed around inside the Meir area before Adaggio slammed it into the roof of the net.
Stafford continued to impress during the second half. Shortly after the restart, defender Jemiah Richards fired over from outside the Mier area. Both Adaggio and substitute Pav Suhaj went close to doubling the lead. Street had a goalbound effort blocked by Clegg.
It was Suhaj who eventually increased Boro's advantage in the 67th minute. The tall Slovakian backheaded a deep from-kick from Damion Jarrett past Armison.
Aaron Calvert replaced Armison in the Meir goal before the restart and was quickly called into action to beat away a close-range shot from Adam Brown.
But the substitute home keeper could do nothing to prevent Rangers adding a third in the 71st minute. Suhaj laid the ball back to Phil Robinson who set up Hopkinson to net with a low drive across goal into the bottom-right corner.
Duggan had a quiet game after replacing Alcock but the keeper was called into action to come off his line to push away an attempted lob from Shane Reaney.
Meir KA v Stafford Calvert was kept busy and he pulled off a superb point-blank save to keep out a close-range effort from Suhaj. The rebound fell to Adaggio who put it wide.
The scoring was wrapped up in the 82nd minute. Ross Draper surged down the middle and fed Adaggio who fired past Calvert.
Teams
Meir KA (yellow/black/black): 1. Amison; 2. Wooliscroft, 6. D. Reaney (capt), 5. Clegg, 3. Evans; 7. Bradford, 8. Owen, 4. Clegg, 11. Lee; 9. Johnson, 10. S. Reaney. Subs included: 1. Calvert, 4. Tim Evans
Stafford Rangers (red/red/red): 17. Danny Alcock; 24. Jemiah Richards, 19. Djoumin Sangare, 4. Craig McAughtrie (capt); 26. Richie Sutton, 25. Tom Ingram, 8. Kevin Street, 7. Ramon Manak, 20. Dave Wood; 9. Neil Grayson, 10. Dolapo Olaoye. Subs: 21. Marco Adaggio (for Wood, 24), 15. Damion Jarrett (for Sutton, ht), 2. Pavol Suhaj (for Olaoye, ht), 16. Adam Brown (for Grayson, ht), 32. Robert Duggan (for Alcock, 50), 29. Phil Robinson (for Ingram, 62), 14. Steve Hopkinson (for Street, 69), 5. Ross Draper (for Manak, 69), 28. David Oldfield (for McAughtrie, 78)
Referee: Andrew Bradshaw (Blurton)
Attendance: (130 headcount)
The match report was originally written for and published on the now defunct www.staffordrangers.co.uk
