Rangers’ fight back on for Matt Elliott
Wednesday 30th March 2011, 8:30AM BST.
Matt Elliott has declared Stafford Rangers’ quest to maintain their Blue Square North status is back on after they rescued a late point at Guiseley.
The match at Nethermoor Park last night finished 1-1 after Andre Francis’ 87th minute equaliser was no less than Rangers deserved, after shading a hard fought contest both in terms of possession and territory.
And boss Elliott was pleased with a draw that takes them back level on points with survival rivals Hyde in the first safety spot.
He said: “It is back as we were. I am sure there will be a few more twists and turns this season. It might go down to the last few minutes of the last match but, hopefully, we’ll sort it out before then.
“We need to make sure we look after our own business. We are back in with a shout when not so long ago it was all doom and gloom.”
Rangers started both halves poorly, falling behind to a James Walshaw header after just 12 minutes.
However, they grew in confidence as the match went on and had several chances before Francis got on the end of Fabrice Kasiama’s deep cross late on.
Elliott said: “We started the second-half badly, we seemed to take 10 minutes to get into it.
“You don’t expect to come to a place like Guiseley and they don’t get any chances at all, there was one fantastic save from our goalkeeper Lee Evans when he clawed the ball away.
“But, in general play they did not cause us too many problems, we caused ourselves problems.
“At times I though it wouldn’t happen for us and that would have been frustrating if we hadn’t come away with a point.”
Elliott praised the performance of Sean Kinsella who was at the heart of Rangers’ best moments in his first game back at the club.
The manager added: “Sean is a natural footballer, he needs to push on a bit more but he has great ability.”
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