Fallon’s fuming at dismissal as Rangers take Trophy tumble
Steve Fallon was less than impressed by the performance of the officials following Soham Town Rangers’ exit from this year’s FA Trophy on Saturday.
Greens boss Fallon was critical of a number of decisions carried out by referee Matt Foley and his two assistants during his side’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Ramsgate in the second round qualifying clash at Julius Martin Lane.
Among the decisions Fallon was left puzzled about was the late red card shown to midfielder Matt Robinson for a challenge on Ben Laslett.
“A few of the offsides given by the linesmen were a bit dodgy,” said Fallon. “But I can’t quite believe that Matt was sent off when everyone thought the free-kick had been given to us after Michael Simpson had been caught in the initial challenge.”
Although unhappy with the officials’ display, Fallon was also disappointed by the performances shown by a number of his players.
“We let ourselves down a bit in the first half as we never really got going,” he said. “It showed in the first half that we have a lack of defenders.
“In the second half we did come out and give it a go and we played some good stuff but we showed that we are a few players short.
“The only positive from the match was the performance of Neil Andrews at the back. He was magnificent.”
Rangers, fielding a makeshift defence featuring the centre-midfield pairing of Andrews and Jamie Barker, fell behind after just seven minutes, through Will Schultz’s side-footed effort from the edge of the box.
It took Rangers until seven minutes before the break to find a leveller through striker Robbie Mason.
Having gone close on several occasions before, the former Ely City frontman made no mistake with his finish after latching on to Michael Simpson’s inch-perfect pass before rolling the ball past Danny Tyman into the empty net.
Soham soon found themselves on the back foot again before the break after Sofian Bennour needlessly brought down Ashley Miller inside the box.
Schultz gave Dan Bircham in the Rangers net no chance with the resulting spot-kick, firing the ball low into the bottom right-hand corner.
After the break, Soham were thankful of Bircham, who denied Schultz a hat-trick when clawing his goal-bound effort around the post, while at the other end Mason was denied a second goal of the game when his powerful header was expertly palmed over to safety by Tyman.
As the clock ran down, Soham continued to battle in search of an equaliser, but their cause was not helped with the sending off of Robinson nine minutes from time.
But it was not to be Soham’s day with Ramsgate seeing out the remaining minutes to set up a third round qualifying tie against Blue Square Bet South side Sutton United.
Rangers will return to action in Ryman Division One North on Saturday when hitting the road to take on Ware.
In the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division, Ely City recorded an emphatic 4-0 victory over Felixstowe and Walton United thanks to goals from Adam Murray, Darren Coe and a brace from Andrew Claydon, while in the First Division Newmarket Town lost their unbeaten record after suffering a shock 1-0 defeat at home to Brightlingsea Regent.
This Saturday, both City and Town are away, with City taking on FC Clacton, and Town travelling to Downham Town for the first round of the Thurlow Nunn League First Division Knockout Cup.
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Wednesday 22 May 2013
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