Guernsey Press

Chatterton stuns Rovers

A WONDER goal really worked wonders for Rangers on Saturday when they pulled off a shock to beat the champions.

Published
Rangers No. 3 Zak Chatterton scores the winning goal early in the second half at Port Soif on Saturday. (Picture by Martin Gray)

Having not long fallen behind to the previously unbeaten FNB Priaulx League leaders and with Rovers oozing confidence for the first quarter-of-an-hour, the visitors were in desperate need of a spark at Port Soif and, boy, did Zak Chatterton provide it.

At full stretch, Ben Le Tocq could not get the distance on his clearing header that he would have liked in the 19th minute but there seemed no immediate danger as the ball dropped to Chatterton nearly 30 yards out.

Crucially, though, the Rangers midfielder did not thrash at his volley, just met it sweetly and then watched as it looped high over the stationary Josh Addison and into the top corner of the net almost to the disbelief of all the other players on the pitch.

The Rangers bench, though, went berserk and suddenly the whole momentum of the game changed.

From that moment on Rangers never stopped hustling and harrying their hosts who, try as they might, never found any sort of fluency or quality.

That was in total contrast to four minutes earlier when they had broken the deadlock with a super goal that was all about the class of Carlos Canha, who took Le Tocq’s pass out on the left and beat a couple of defenders as he drove into the box and then drew a third before slipping a square pass to Aidan McKay and he coolly side-footed the ball into the bottom corner.

Had Glyn Dyer’s subsequent shot just moments later sneaked inside the far post rather than flash across the face of goal, the floodgates might have really opened.

However, it didn’t and once Chatterton’s goal-of-the-season contender pegged the blue-and-whites back, the hosts never posed any real attacking threat again.

After the interval, Rangers took the lead four minutes into the second half and it was Chatterton again who struck.

Tom Newbold’s clearance was initially flicked on by Marcus Queripel before Jamie Gauvain helped it into the path of Chatterton and, with Addison briefly losing his footing and unable to narrow the angle quickly, the Rangers No. 3 rolled in his second.

While Rovers had the majority of possession for the rest of the game, they failed to test Newbold with Tom Strawbridge’s header just over the bar the nearest they came to an equaliser.

With the match becoming more and more fractious as time ebbed away, Dyer was convinced he should have had a penalty but referee Geoff Ogier was having none of it and in injury time Queripel was shown a straight red card for taking out Blair Howitt as he attempted to break in midfield.

But that could not take the gloss off a huge result for Rangers.

‘It was a battle and we deserved it,’ said coach Nathan Thompson.

‘[After Chatterton’s first goal] the boys had the momentum from then and the hunger to win the game.

‘We know we are capable of performing against any team and we have come to the unbeaten team in the league, who were playing with a few GFC lads in there, missing our big man in Bish [Wayne Bishop] and won.’