King’s Lynn Tournament

A Rangers Under 20 side travelled south to take part in King’s Lynn Town’s tournament over the weekend. Rangers were without Aidan Wilson, Kyle Bradley, Zak Rudden and Glenn Middleton who remained at home on first team duty.

First up was Friday night’s game against a Legia Warsaw youth side.

Rangers 2 Legia Warsaw 2 (Rangers won 3-2 on penalties)

Rangers opened against a Legia Warsaw side that was a bit older, mainly 1998 and 1999’s but also included Radoseaw Pruchnik, a thirty-one year old who has played over 200 Polish league games. The young Rangers side had the better of the first half and could have been more than a goal up, with the Polish side coming back strongly after the break before Rangers won the penalty shootout.

Rangers took the lead just before the twenty-minute mark, Serge Atakayi attacked on the left and when his cross was cleared from the box to Kai Kennedy on the left his superb first time pass inside setup Stephen Kelly to shoot past Viacelaus Kurdgavcevs from the edge of the box. On twenty-seven minutes Serge Atakayi hit the left hand byline where he turned a defender, from his cross Kai Kennedy headed just wide of the keeper’s right hand post.

Ten minutes before the break Radoseaw Pruchnik hit a powerful free-kick from around thirty yards that Aidan McAdams saved comfortably. With the half-time whistle approaching Mateusz Leleno crossed from the right and Lukasz Zjawinski stooped to head narrowly past Aidan McAdams left hand post.

Half-Time:- Rangers 1 Legia Warsaw 0

Legia had upped their game after the break and five minutes in Mateusz Praszelik tried his luck from around twenty-five yards which Aidan McAdams parried. Five minutes later the Polish side were level, Radoseaw Pruchnik curling a twenty-five yard free-kick over the wall and into the top left hand corner of the net.

Before the half was twenty minutes old Legia took the lead, Konrad Matuszewski’s corner from the right was flicked on at the near post and Bartosz Brodzinski arrived to net at the back post from close range. Within a minute Amos Shapario-Thompson broke forward to test Aidan McAdams with a powerful shot.

Rangers replied with a patient passing move which ended with Jordan Houston picking out Dapo Mebude with a cross from the right but the striker shot over. With ten minutes remaining a good move from the Polish side saw the ball played to Oskar Wojtysiak on the right, he passed inside to Radoseaw Pruchnik with Aidan McAdams blocking with his foot.

Rangers got a break with five minutes remaining, the ball was worked out to Scott Gray on the left and from his cross the ball stuck the hand of a Legia defender as he tried to clear and the referee pointed to the spot for a rather harsh penalty. Jordan Houston stepped up to covert the spot-kick.

With no further scoring it was on to a penalty shootout in which Aidan McAdams emerged as the Rangers hero saving three spot kicks. With Radoseaw Pruchnik and Oskar Wojtysiak converting for Legia, Aidan McAdams saved from Mateusz Praszelik and Kamil Orlik. Legia keeper Viaceslaus Kurdgavcevs saved from Jordan Houston and Andy Dallas, but Matthew Shiels and Dapo Mebude both converted their spot kicks. So with the shootout at 2-2 Jamie Barjonas stepped up to put Rangers ahead, and the scene was set for Aidan McAdams to dive to his left and parry Bartosz Brodzinski’s shot and send Rangers into Sunday’s final.

Full-Time:- Rangers 2 Legia Warsaw 2

Rangers:- Aidan McAdams; Jordan Houston, Lewis Mayo, Rhys Breen (Danny Finlayson 57 mins), Matthew Shiels; Cammy Palmer (Murray Miller 70 mins); Jamie Barjonas, Stephen Kelly; Serge Atakayi (Scott Gray 70 mins), Andy Dallas, Kai Kennedy (Dapo Mebude 57 mins)

Legia Warsaw:- Viaceslaus Kurdgavcevs; Mateusz Leleno, Mateusz Bondarenko, Kacper Pietrzyk, Konrad Mateuszewski; Michal Krabownik, Radoseaw Pruchnik; Michal Badhur, Mateus Praszelik, Kamil Orlik; Lukasz Zjawinski.

Subs Used:- Cezary Miszta, Oskar Wojtysiak, Bartosz Brodzinski, Amos Shapario- Thompson. 

With King’s Lynn Town beating a young Norwich City side 4-1 on Saturday,  Rangers would meet the Southern League Premier Central side in the final.

King’s Lynn Town 1 Rangers 0

Once again it was a game of contrasting halves with the young Rangers side looking to be intimidated and bullied in the first half before performing much better after the break.

Rangers had a great chance to take the lead on three minutes, Serge Atakayi latched on to a slack pass from Ryan Jarvis to race clear but was denied by a fine save from Alex Street. The home side’s first effort came from a Michael Clunan free-kick that was straight at Kieran Wright.

On eleven minutes Rory McAuley broke from the back and passed to Ryan Hawkins on the right, from his cross it took a great Jordan Houston clearance over his own crossbar to avert the danger. From the right hand corner the home side took the lead, Rangers struggled to clear convincingly and when the ball broke to Ryan Fryatt he fired into the roof of the net from close range.

Midway through the half the Trialist No.2 crossed from the right and Harry Limb turned inside the box but was denied when Kieran Wright blocked with his foot. Five minutes before the break Serge Atakayi and Jordan Houston combined on the right hand angle of the box to tee up Stephen Kelly twenty-five yards out but his shot was straight at Alex Street.

Half-Time:- King’s Lynn Town 1 Rangers 0

Rangers started the half on the front foot, on three minutes Kai Kennedy attacked the left side of the box and passed to Stephen Kelly on the angle of the box, from his shot Alex Street dived to his left to turn the ball wide. Rangers worked the right hand corner short, with Serge Atakayi and Jamie Barjonas setting up Stephen Kelly on the edge of the box but he was again denied by a fine Alex Street save low to his left.

Just before the hour mark Alex Street left a pass to a defender short and Serge Atakayi pounced and passed inside to Andy Dallas, but he delayed his shot allowing Ryan Fryatt to challenge and clear for a corner. Rangers had the better of the remainder of the game that was mainly noted for a rash of substitutions, but they couldn’t get the goal to take the game to another shootout.

Full-Time:- King’s Lynn Town 1 Rangers 0

King’s Lynn Town:- Alex Street; Trialist No.2, Ryan Fryatt (Dion Frary 69 mins), Rory McAuley (Matthew Castellan 69 mins), Frazer Blake-Tracy (Eoin McQuaid 69 mins); Ryan Jarvis (Sam Gaughran 69 mins); Michael Clunan (Trialist No.18 69mins), Ryan Hawkins (Lee Beevers 83 mins), Jordan Richards (Trialist No.12 HT); Michael Gash (Dylan Edge 69 mins), Harry Limb.

Rangers:- Kieran Wright; Jordan Houston, Lewis Mayo, Rhys Breen (Danny Finlayson 28 mins), Matthew Shiels (Kai Kennedy HT); Murray Miller (Cammy Palmer HT); Jamie Barjonas, Stephen Kelly; Serge Atakayi, Andy Dallas (Dapo Mebude 64 mins), Scott Gray (Kyle McLelland 81 mins).

Footnote:- In the game for 3rd and 4th placed Legia Warsaw beat Norwich City 3-0.