Little Christmas cheer for Arlesey

Arlesey Town 0 Soham Rangers 1

SOHAM Town Rangers made their first ever trip to Arlesey and returned home with all three points from a game distinguished by its lack of quality.

The home side was missing several key players; skipper Matt Waldron was suspended, James Dillnut injured and strike duo Jamie Osborne and Ryan Francis both unavailable.

The match was decided by a goal midway through the second half which gave the visitors a merited victory after they had enjoyed most of the few scoring chances.

Arlesey relied on long ball tactics and continually gave possession away against a side which were there for the taking if the home team could have applied sustained pressure.

The Blues had the best chance of the first half on 14 minutes when Richard Pringle played a short ball to Cameron Facey, but after tricking his marker, Facey was only able to place a weak shot to the left of the goal allowing the visiting 'keeper an easy save.

In the next attack Rangers created an opening but an intended lob was caught by James Russell at full stretch.

In the 61st minute the visitors were unlucky not to go ahead when a shot from Andy Furnell from 25 yards rebounded off the crossbar and back into play, however six minutes later they were ahead when Michael Simpson found himself in space following a throw and hit his low shot into the net.

Rangers almost doubled the lead in the 80th minute when Arlesey were caught ball watching, but Russell produced another fine save, and Arlesey themselves had an opportunity with five minutes remaining but Ricky Case, running onto a saved free kick, could only hit the foot of the post and game finished 1-0 to the visitors.

Arlesey: Russell, Case, Beaumont, Moran, Brown, Allen, Kimani, Clark, Facey, Pringle, Reynolds. Subs Dilley, Junjea, Hestor, Peat.

Attendance: 122.