Rangers 5 - 0 Paradise (387042613)

The crowd of 7000 turning up at Tonga Lane today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Mannus van Zijl was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Alfredo Marco Bocchi and Mårten Lewstad. A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Rangers. The following players had been chosen: Fox - Austin, Stewart, Richards, Claridge - Tsamaris, Ketkar, Predebon, Chambers - Sinclair, Aranui.

Paradise decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. The following players took the field: Waugh - Puna, Foster, Pallauta, Houli - Mylecharane, Rychart, La Paglia, Smallman - Marston, Draper.

The game was characterised by rough play and many physical challenges on the wet field, but B. Chambers showed great heart and had a good game. It was a bad day for the usually speedy N. Tsamaris. The mud seemed to slow him down. Rangers's A. Predebon had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 30 minutes having been played. R. Stevens was the replacement. The boggy pitch disrupted the game, especially for technical players like B. Houli. Rangers took the lead, 1 - 0, after a penalty 36 minutes into the match. L. Austin scored from the penalty spot. Paradise's M. Foster was shown a yellow card after 37 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Unfortunately for Rangers, J. Fox was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. K. Peart replaced him. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. N. Tsamaris squirmed through their central defence after 39 minutes, increasing the lead to 2 - 0. Paradise's D. Puna tried his best to narrow the score with a well placed free kick, but it wasn't quite good enough and K. Peart managed to block the shot. Cheers filled the stadium as V. Claridge broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 3 - 0 to Rangers. Confident in their lead, Rangers's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. It was 3 - 0 at the break. Rangers had most of the ball, with 69 percent of possession.

The home side's M. Ketkar came close to extending the lead 52 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but R. Waugh managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. Rangers put in a good effort on the right, but D. Aranui saw his volley fly wide of the mark 74 minutes into the game. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave N. Tsamaris from Rangers a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 77 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Things were deteriorating for the away team as Rangers scored another to make it 4 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for L. Austin after 78 minutes. After 84 minutes, M. Ketkar put Rangers ahead 5 - 0 when he rose to head in a cross from the right wing. Rangers claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 69 percent.

Rangers's top performer was clearly R. Stevens. K. Peart was a disappointment, however. The most dominating Paradise player was without a doubt W. Marston. R. Waugh on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 5 - 0.