Hall Road Rangers 3-1 Ollerton Town

Hall Road Rangers picked up their first league win of the season on Saturday as they beat Ollerton Town 3-1 at Haworth Park. The first half was a very even contest as both sides aimed to take the initiative and dictate the play. Ollerton had an early opportunity in the 4th minute which Sam Martin put over the bar whilst Dave Harrison fired a shot over in the Ollerton box in the 13th minute. Rangers took the lead in fortuitous fashion in the 29th minute as Luke Wheeldon’s cross come shot sailed over Ollerton goalkeeper Levi Owen and into the back of the net. This lead was almost doubled in the 32nd minute as there was a goalmouth scramble inside the Ollerton box with the ball hitting the post a couple of times. It was the turn of the visitors to pile the pressure on the Hall Road goal as the first half came to a close. Ollerton accumulated a number of set pieces and created a number of chances which had to be dealt with by Rangers keeper Jody Barford.

Hall Road started the second half well and doubled their lead in the 53rd minute thanks to Luke Wheeldon’s second goal of the game. Wheeldon got on the end of a ball into the Ollerton box from Chris Spinks and placed it into the back of the net. This lead was extended in the 66th minute as a Rangers breakaway resulted in Chris Spinks laying the ball off to Lewis Andrew who tucked the ball home to get his name on the scoresheet. The visitors produced a reaction and subsequently pulled a goal back in the 74th minute as Lewis Dalmedo met a Sam Geeves free-kick into the Rangers box and smashed the ball past Jody Barford.

Hall Road boss Leon Sewell was pleased with his side’s performance. “It’s always nice to have your first points on the board. If we’re truthful, we should have had at least three points from the first two league games. Winning midweek away at FC Humber in the cup obviously spurred us on going into the Ollerton game. It was a bit of a strange game, to be honest. We did what we had to do and I thought we scored three good goals. For the first goal, some will say it was a fluke of a cross but it found the top corner. We reacted well in the six-yard box for the second goal. Then the third one was a counter-attack as we broke forward very quickly and it was impressive. We could have had a couple more goals and it was disappointing to concede. However, we saw out the game properly” he said.

Reported by: Oliver Harsley