Dandy Town 4 Southampton Rangers 0

Dandy Town maintain their lead at the top of the table, with a solid victory over relegation-threatened Southampton Rangers last night at Goose Gosling Field.

Although clearly the better team, Town had their work cut out for them as Rangers were set up very compact and defended well for large portions of the match.

A goal late in the first half from Eusebio Blankendal was the first blow to weaken the defensive structure, which would eventually collapse in the second half with three more unanswered goals, much to the approval of coach Aaron Jenkins.

“Tonight’s match was all about patience for us,” said Jenkins. “We knew that they would set up defensively and make it difficult for us to play through them and the objective was to move the ball and attack the wide areas. In recent matches we have become frustrated in the face of a compact defence, but we did well to keep our heads tonight and remain patient until our opportunities came.”

Dandy Town controlled possession in the early stages of the match, but were only able to muster up a couple of half chances against an organised and resilient defensive block.

The first real chance of the match actually came for Rangers, when Akale Bean breached the Dandy Town defence, entering the box with the ball in his stride, but managed only to shoot straight at the goalkeeper from a tight angle.

A better outcome in that moment may have changed the trajectory of the match, but instead Blankendal would pop up at the other end on the half-hour mark when he received a back heel from Cecoy Robinson, cut in on his man from the right and placed his well struck effort into the top corner of the net.

From that point, it was all Town and they had a chance to make it two just before the interval but Matthew Mello-Cann pulled his shot wide from a good position after getting in on the right side of the box.

The second half was mostly one way traffic, and after having a goal disallowed for offside ten minutes in, Town would eventually find their second goal by way of a cheeky finish from Nizigh Spence, who clipped his effort over the onrushing goalkeeper after being played through nicely by Jomei Bean-Lindo in the 63rd minute.

Ten minutes later, Robinson would get his name on the score sheet, beating the offside trap and walking in on the goalkeeper uncontested to finish into the top corner.

In the 85th minute substitute Sekai Tatem showed good skill, turning sharply on his man to create space, but was unfortunate to watch his shot from distance come off the top side of the cross bar and out for a goal kick.

The match was all but over at this point, but Tomiko Goater added one more just before full time, when he was found unmarked on the penalty spot and calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner.

SCORERS

Dandy Town: Blankendal 30, Spence 63, Robinson 71, Goater 90

TEAMS

Dandy Town (3-4-2-1): J Manders 6 (substitute J Roser 5, 65min) ‒ E Blankendal 7, T Manders 6 (sub: S Darrell 80), M Isaac 6 ‒ A Furbert 7, J Bean-Lindo 6, N Spence 6, E Swan 6 (sub: J Johnson 80) ‒ T Goater 6, M Mello-Cann 5, C Robinson 6 (sub: S Tatem 83) Substitutes not used: A Estravit, D Scraders Booked: Isaac

Southampton Rangers (4-5-1) S Perinchief 4 ‒ J Hill 5, D Hill 5, J Bean 5, L Scott 6 ‒ K Tucker 5, E Stoneham 5 (sub: J Santucci 83), R Lowe, A Bean 5 (sub: M Basden 77), K Wilson 5 ‒ D Stovell 5. Substitutes not used: D Adams Booked: Scott

Referee: A Francis