KPR Spring Upset Over Rangers In Grand Final Thriller

Samford Rangers 0 Kangaroo Point Rovers 2 (McQueen 70’; OG (Harris) 81') HT: 0-0 Played at John Fredericks

Kangaroo Point Rovers finished off their season of resurgence with an exciting 2-0 win over Samford Rangers in the Capital League 4 Grand Final at John Fredericks Park on Sunday afternoon. After a tense seventy minutes of football, Nick McQueen set the supporters alight with a truly magnificent goal from well outside the penalty box after a cultured build up down the left side of the field. Eleven minutes later the result was locked away when a long ball in the area was unfortunately nodded home by a Samford Rangers defender Liam Harris with no fault attributable to himself or the keeper… just one of those things. Rovers late-season improvement has been spectacular and their style of football, lots of short passing and confidence on the ball, is one of the reasons why and also the reason they dominated the first half an hour and could easily have been up by two or three goals. But Rangers aren’t Champions for nothing and when they came back into the contest it seemed as if they had taken the sting out of the challengers but were unable to get the ball across the line despite some gilt-edged opportunities. In fact, they could easily have found a miracle as they went forward in numbers in the last ten minutes but luck just wasn’t on their side. It was a grand occasion of course, with a big crowd in attendance, and the football purists amongst them were treated to a real contrast in styles. Samford love to get forward quickly and take advantage of their pace but were unable to get in, around or behind the back four with a bumpy and bouncy pitch not helping their cause. At the end of a gruelling season, they have promotion and the title which would have been their prime objectives before a ball was kicked way back in February.

Match Highlights:

Coach Remarks:

Steve Forsyth (Samford Rangers): “I think we played our Grand Final a couple of weeks ago. The two week break can affect teams and we were a bit flat today. They played well and we achieved our goal of winning the league and getting promoted and it was their grand final today.” Russell Mapri (Kangaroo Point Rovers): “Samford were always going to be a tough ask, they are a quality outfit with talent in every single position. I knew if we just did our job and played in a disciplined style we were going to win today. But we had to keep our discipline for 90 minutes and that’s what it comes down to. We haven’t had a designated keeper all season but we stuck with our defensive duties and we haven’t been scored against in eight weeks. Our keeper has had nine clean sheets and we haven’t lost a game in four months so we had as much chance of beating them as anybody else.” Team line-ups