Southampton Rangers 2 Dandy Town 0

Kamali Davis scored two well-taken goals to seal a surprise FA Cup win for Southampton Rangers at Goose Gosling Field last night and put them in the quarter-final draw today.

The victory was sweet revenge for Rangers who were beaten by Town 3-2 in the league two weeks ago at the same venue.

This time they grabbed the lead in the first half and held on against a Town fightback before putting the match in the bag with a second Davis goal right on full time.

No doubt Rangers coach Jomar Wilkinson had a good night’s sleep after pulling off victory against his former team.

“My hat goes off to Dandy Town, they are a quality outfit,” Wilkinson acknowledged.

“We did a real good job and I think we wanted it more. We fought our butts off, defended and attacked as a team. We knew we had to do a good defensive job and we’re happy with the result.”

Chances were few in an evenly matched first half that saw the deadlock broken in the 28th minute when Davis got into the box on the right side and drilled a low shot into the far bottom corner past goalkeeper Treadwell Gibbons. Town went close right at the end of the half when Eusebio Blankendal curled the ball just over the crossbar following a corner.

The intensity increased in the second half between the Dudley Eve and Friendship Trophy winners with Rangers still holding their own against a Town side that was missing their captain Angelo Simmons. Keedai Astwood, the Rangers fullback, twice went close early in the half, firing wide of the far post and then seeing a pass across the six-yard box go untouched minutes later following a good move down the right side.

Town kept up the intensity in a fast-paced second half as Omar Wilson’s cross from the left side of the box was deflected for a corner by McQuinn Burch, the ball narrowly missing the far post. Town made a double substitution after that, bringing on veterans Kwame Steede and Lynn Emery, but they could not break down a solid Rangers defence marshalled by Burch and Rai Sampson in the middle.

Rangers were not content to sit on their narrow lead and were rewarded with a crucial second goal right on full time when Wilson took a short pass from the left and placed his low shot inside the near post.

“That wasn’t something I was looking for, I was satisfied to defend the 1-0,” Wilkinson admitted. “I wasn’t really looking for the second goal. We were deserving of that 2-0 victory tonight, I’m so proud of my team.”

SCORERS

Rangers: Davis, 28, 90

TEAMS

Southampton Rangers (4-4-2): S Bean — K Astwood (sub: J Hill, 90+1min), R Sampson, M Burch, K Harrison — D Ming, J Bassett, D Brangman, K Davis — Q Maynard (sub: N Mello, 90+5), K Wilson (sub: C Henry, 88). Substitutes not used: J Bean, R Simmons, T Wilkinson. Booked: Davis, Sampson.

Dandy Town (3-5-2): T Gibbons — A Furbert, S Darrell, J Bean-Lindo — E Blankendal, J Chapman, J Furbert, J Amory (sub: L Emery, 63), E Trott — C Darrell, (sub: M Mello-Cann, 81), O Wilson (sub: K Steede, 63). Substitutes not used: J Roser, N Smith, M Aden, E Swan. Booked: Darrell, Blankendal.

Referee: T Simons.