Rangers Keep Pressure On North Brisbane For Title
Bethania Rams 0 Samford Rangers 3 (D. Forsyth 64', 87'; Gleeson 84') HT 0-0 Played at Opperman Park Dane Forsyth's double helped earn his side a deserved 3-0 win away to Bethania Rams on Saturday evening, keeping their title aspirations on track as well as all but securing the Capital League 4 Golden Boot for himself with just two games remaining. In a scrappy and at times niggly encounter, both sides seemed more intent at complaining to Referee Jim Roddy for every challenge, rather than play the football both are capable of, and it seemed the visitors were the guiltier of the two sides for this. Bethania were forced to replace two key personnel in the first half with captain Jason Robinson forced off after just quarter of an hour and then Jordan Scott also had to be replaced because of injury just before half time. The changes only seemed to spur the hosts on as they held out for the first half despite Rangers dominating, but the visitor's finishing left a lot to be desired. The scrap continued in the second term with Samford again wrestling momentum their way and they were eventually rewarded with the opening goal just after the hour mark. Emryn Donnelly-Fagan picked up the ball just outside the box and powered a low drive goal ward that Rams keeper Vince Cartia did will to block, but the ball fell kindly to Forsyth who reacted quicker and smashed home the rebound. Samford's second came late in the game and it took something special when Dane Forsyth laid the ball across to an unmarked Ryan Gleeson who was one on one with Cartia, but as the Rams keeper made his way toward Gleeson, the Rangers striker, who from 30 yards out, superbly lobbed Cartia to give Rangers breathing space in the contest. Forsyth sealed victory moments later when Nixon Flanigan stole the ball from Masta Worku and slipped the ball across the box for Dane Forsyth who rifled the ball into the bottom right corner across Cartia. The evening got worse for Bethania who had Mohammad Ali Rezae sent off for a second bookable offence on 90 minutes. In the end it was a richly deserved result for the traveling contingent, who to be fair, made hard work for themselves with the opportunities that went begging and chances coming and going, courtesy of poor finishing and some good goal keeping from Cartia in the Rams goal. Next week Rangers host North Brisbane for what is essentially the premiership decider with both North Brisbane and Samford facing bottom three sides in their final games of the season. Bethania can rest easy in the knowledge they'll be involved in the post season finals series, but should they repeat this encounter, their campaign will fall short at the first semi-final. Coach Remarks: David Coles - Bethania Rams: "Well, when you don't train you get what you deserve, it's as simple as that. We didn't play any football tonight. We were forced in to two early substitutions. But full credit to Samford, they probably deserve it out of all the clubs in the Capital League 4 to be promoted. We were probably pretenders at one stage but we haven't trained for probably three months. It's a new team and if they don't want to do it, I can't force them." Steve Forsyth - Samford Rangers: "I thought we shaded it but they made us work very hard for the win. I thought nil all at half time was close to a fair result but we have a very big squad and we're very fit. We have the two up front that are very hard to handle and over 90 minutes we're hard to contain." FB Media Player of the Match: Dane Forsyth (Samford Rangers) The pint sized striker continued with his goal scoring habits and is a real handful for any side to deal with and isn't the top goal scorer in the league for two seasons running without good reason. Team Line-ups: Bethania Rams: Cartia (gk), Alhamid, Fisher, Mohammadi (Stockman 55'), Rezaee, Rezae, J. Robinson (Shepherd 41'), Scott (Ahmadi 15'), Shafai, Worku, C. Robinson. Subs: Ahmadi, Shepherd, Stockman. Samford Rangers: James (gk), Donnelly-Fagan (Ferguson 87'), Flannigan, D. Forsyth, R. Forsyth (Duffy 71'), Gleeson, Godsell, Gray, Harris, McKee, Stefani. Subs: Green (rgk), Duffy, Craven, Ferguson. REFEREE: Jim Roddy
