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Lady Luck deserts Rangers

As football teams propping up their respective divisions the world over are finding right now, when you are at the bottom luck is an all too rare commodity.

For Bradford City in England, Osasuna in Spain and Bari in Italy, read Southampton Rangers in Bermuda.

No, the good fortune was all with the Zebras at Somerset CC yesterday.

Firstly Sammy Swan put them ahead in the first-half with a header that came off the back of his skull, and then when Rangers got themselves back into the match through a wonderful run and strike from Temiko Flood, the men in black and white delivered the sucker punch -- a winner from Raynel Lightbourne which rocketed into the net with 90 minutes on the clock.

Rangers coach Edgar Smith has been around long enough to know that such is the way of things.

"I think that we put in 100 percent today and should have come out with a share of the spoils. It was just that little lack of concentration in the last couple of seconds -- we didn't shut the player down and that was crucial,'' he said.

"It seems like when you are really fighting to avoid relegation or things are not going your way cruel things happen.'' Despite being seven points adrift at the bottom, Smith said he saw enough yesterday to suggest all was not lost.

"We have not given up hope. I don't believe in giving up. I really feel if we can continue to work hard then maybe something may end up going our way,'' he said.

However, good work doesn't necessarily win matches and Smith knows the odds are stacked against him.

"I'm not going to predict anything as yet but things have really worked against us thus far and it's really going to take a competitive effort on our side -- nothing to do with luck or anything like that -- for us to avoid the drop now. We knew that we needed something from this match today,'' he said.

A bright note on a depressing day for Rangers was the performance of man of the match Flood.

"Temiko was very, very strong. I liked the way he really controlled the game up front and held onto the ball and used his skills. His skill on the ball today was tremendous. I was very, very pleased with his overall performance,'' said Smith.

"He hasn't played in about three or four weeks, but you could see he was really eager to get back out there. It was unfortunate that he could only pop in one today. He had about three good chances, without a doubt, but only one ended up in the back of the net.'' PHC: C.Crockwell, D.Francis, R.Lewis, T.Darrell (M.Smith 75 mins), A.Washington, C.Furbert, O.Steede (D.Outerbridge 25), D.Wilson (M.Lambe 87), S.Astwood, S.Swan, R.Lightbourne.

Rangers: R.Darell, S.Simmons, P.Brangman, R.Belboda, O.Hart, J.Raynor, R.Simmons, L.Seymour, C.Darrell, T.Flood, K.Tucker (S.Williams 90).

Men of the match: C.Crockwell (PHC); T.Flood (Rangers).

Referee: Lyndon Raynor.