Rainworth MW 2-3 Hall Road Rangers

Hall Road Rangers produced a terrific comeback on Tuesday night as they came from two goals down to win 2-3 at Rainworth Miners Welfare. There was some early attacking threat from Rangers inside the 1st minute as Craig Muirhead made a dangerous run down the right and flashed an effort wide.

Rainworth took the lead in the 6th minute as Morgan Boyle slotted the ball into the back of the net when it fell to him after a long throw into the Rangers box. The hosts doubled their lead in the 10th minute when Alex Hardman got on the scoresheet.

Rangers subsequently grew into the game and began to create some good opportunities. Alex Knaggs almost reduced the arrears in the 19th minute as he met a Chris Spinks corner and put a header just wide.

James Piercy got Hall Road back in the game in the 26th minute when he got on the end of a superb Chris Spinks cross and smashed the ball home to get his 1st goal of the season.

An enforced change was made by Rangers in the 37th minute with Tom Bennett coming onto the pitch to replace the injured Alex Britton. Bennett’s introduction provided more technical nous in the midfield and led to Rangers being able to put together some good attacking moves.

The Wrens were reduced to ten men in the 56th minute as their goalkeeper Warren Squires was sent off for handling the ball outside his area. Rangers got their equaliser a couple of minutes later as skipper Conner Harman produced a lovely strike.

Paul Wray received his marching orders in the 61st minute which meant that it became even once again in terms of players on the pitch for both sides.

Hall Road exerted a sustained amount of pressure on the Rainworth defence as they looked to get a winning goal. They found their winner in the 84th minute when Conner Harman made it a brace for himself which led to jubilant celebrations from the Rangers players, coaching staff and supporters.

Rangers saw the game out effectively which meant that they picked up a third successive league win and made it six league games unbeaten.

Rangers joint boss Leon Sewell was full of praise for his players in how they responded to going behind.

“It was a sloppy first 15-20 minutes and we had our backs against the wall.

Fair play to the Hall Road lads as they showed a lot of character. If you take the first 15 minutes out of it, it was pretty much all Hall Road after that.

I said to the boys at half-time to have that self-belief and the desire to win the game for the club and we’ll get the three points. They did that so testament to them for grinding it out.

It was the first time I’ve been to Rainworth and it’s not an easy place to go. They’re not an easy side to play against.

The forced couple of changes we had to make allowed us to actually grow into the game and play on the front foot a lot more.

Good to see James Piercy get his 1st goal of the season and club captain Conner Harman stepping up to score the equalising goal which was a lovely strike from the edge of the box and scoring from an acute angle for the winning goal.

We protected our goal a lot better in the second half and attacked with a lot more purpose. It puts us in good stead for when we welcome Glasshoughton at home on Saturday down at Haworth Park” Sewell said.

Report by: Oliver Harsley