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Smith shines as Rangers romp into semis

Southampton Rangers 2Devonshire Colts 0Keemo Smith set up a goal and scored another to fire Southampton Rangers through to the Friendship Trophy semi-finals at White Hill Field yesterday.

Southampton Rangers 2

Devonshire Colts 0

Keemo Smith set up a goal and scored another to fire Southampton Rangers through to the Friendship Trophy semi-finals at White Hill Field yesterday.

Smith's cunning free kick laid the foundation for Rohaan Simons to spectacularly blast Rangers ahead in the 34th minute. The Rangers midfielder then finished off a delightful three-man move with a clinically-taken goal eight minutes from the end of regulation to put the final result beyond doubt.

It was arguably one of Smith's better performances of the season and one that left absolutely little room for debate as to who was the driving force behind Rangers' deserved win over a Colts side who paid the price for some slack defending.

"We wanted to start the new year with a win to boost team morale and overall I thought we worked hard as a team today," said Smith, younger brother of Rangers coach Albie Smith.

"I hope this result does good things for us because our main goal is to stay up and anything else will be a bonus."

Once again Rangers drew inspiration from their critics who had written them off prior to kick-off against a Colts side yet to taste victory this season.

"What really spurred us on was the prediction . . . we were predicted to lose and that made us all the more determined to prove the critics wrong," added Smith.

Both teams failed to settle down and take control of proceedings and the match didn't come alive until Simons whipped the ball home from a tight angle with a blast that beat Colts' 'keeper Dyke Lawrence for pace.

Colts were blown down for a foul in their own half and Smith's short pass into space behind the defence found Simons wide open on the right. With time and space at his leisure, Simons took route one and volleyed into the roof of the net from a tight angle some 20 yards out past a stunned Lawrence who was beaten all ends up.

"Rohaan scored a brilliant goal from a move we had worked on in training," added Smith.

Colts created a few chances of their own after the break as complacency set in in the Rangers camp. But sloppy defending led to Smith adding to his team's tally in the 82nd minute with a superbly taken goal after the hard-working Jermaine Dill and sub Vernon Perinchief had laid the initial ground work.

Southampton Rangers: J.Smith, K.Smith, K.Tucker (captain), A.Rocker, J.Charles, J.Dill, R.Lowe (T.Brown), K.Smith, J.Bean, I.Morricko (V.Perinchief), R.Simons (M.Williams).

Devonshire Colts: D.Lawrence, E.Wilkin, S.Burgess, J.Butterfield, T.Foote (M.Place), Q.Aberdeen (M.Piper), W.Ming, A.Famous (D.Williams), C.Trott, A.Zuill (capt), P.Anderson.

Yellow cards: K.Tucker, R.Lowe, R.Simons (Rangers); W.Ming (Colts)

Man of the match: K.Smith (Rangers)

Referee: Ronue Cann

Match Commissioner: Ian Rawlins.