Dome Rangers 1 - 3 Brighton Centre XI

The Dome Rangers suffered a narrow defeat in their debut match against local rivals Brighton Centre at Braypool on Sunday afternoon. Centre were on the offensive right from the whistle and Rangers made their intention to battle for every ball quite clear with a couple of ferocious tackles flying in within the first couple of minutes. But for the first thirty minutes of the game nearly all of the play came within the Rangers' half, with attack after attack coming from the well-drilled Centre team. However Rangers defended well, with Marks commanding the back line and barking out orders at his team mates. Inevitably though the breakthrough came in the 26th minute with Centre scoring the first goal, a simple tap in after a fine save from Lewis. This sparked Rangers' best spell, with the team finally getting possession and managing four shots on goal within a ten minute period. The first of these fell to Bennett, a cross which he stretched to volley over the bar - and sadly pulled a hamstring in the process. With a couple of substitutions giving the team fresh legs there were then chances for Cameron who also spooned a shot over the bar, and for the two Hovey brothers who both hit shots wide of the goal.

Rangers reshuffled at half-time with Cotton and Plucknett moving back into defence, allowing Cameron and Andy Hovey to play more attacking roles. The tactics paid immediate dividends when Centre handled in the box in the 48th minute and Mike Hovey scored the resultant penalty kick. The game then became a real midfield battle as both teams went in search of a decisive winning goal. As the teams started to tire, Centre pressed forward again only to be denied by some excellent goalkeeping from Lewis, Rangers' man of the match. The deadlock was finally broken in the 71st minute when Centre scored their second goal, coming from a free kick which was headed in at the far post. With Jouanides back on the pitch as a striker, Rangers attacked again and created another chance to level but Mike Hovey shot over the bar. Centre then struck the killing blow, going further ahead in the 77th minute with a hopeful shot from way outside the penalty area which curled just inside the post to leave the keeper standing. But Rangers never gave up, they fought back again and Jouanides had a shot saved in the 89th minute after a frantic goalmouth scramble. The referee allowed the game to flow and kept his cards in his pocket, but Marks can consider himself lucky to have escaped a caution for two very late challenges on Piper, the latter coming in the appropriately named injury time. And so it finished 3-1 to the Centre lads, but the entire Rangers squad made an exceptional effort and there were some terrific individual performances on the pitch which the team can build and learn from. To victory next time!