White Hart Lane Joy!

Bob Rayner reports from North London

Risborough Rangers travelled to White Hart Lane on Saturday and came away with all three points in a tense match versus high flying New Salamis. The North London Club, whose ground is within sight of the more famous Tottenham Hotspur stadium, went into the match on the back of eight straight wins. The good news for Rangers was the return from injury of influential centre back, Josh Urqhuart.

Much of the first half saw both teams enjoy spells of possession as they probed and tested their opponents, with most of the game being played 30 yards either side of the halfway line. Despite some neat passing from each team chances were few and far between as the final ball looked lacking and defences enjoyed the upper hand. The first half chance fell to New Salamis 11 minutes in as a weak shot was easily picked up by Rangers' keeper Jack Brooker. Rangers immediately hit back with Marcus Wyllie's shot deflected into the keeper. Both teams continued to cancel each other out until a couple of minutes before the break when a low shot was pushed away for a corner by Brooker. Rangers showed a glimpse of what was to follow in the second half, finishing the first strongly, as Lewis Patrick fires over from a good position, Wyllie's angled shot inches wide after good work from Kieron Schmidt and Joel Read, given a free header following Schmidt's corner, headed over when he should have hit the target.

The second half started with both sides going close. Liam Enver-Marum turned and shot across the face of the Salamis goalmouth with Alex Kedzierski a toe-nail away from poking home. New Salamis countered with a good move down the flank finishing with a shot just wide of the Rangers post. 10 minutes into the half and Schmidt's excellent slide-rule pass picks out Enver-Marum who fires over from eight yards. Seven minutes later and Rangers got the breakthrough. Good play down the Rangers right involving Enver-Marum and Sean Coles saw Enver-Marum pick out Kedzierski in the area. As Kedzierski sets himself to shoot he wrong foots his marker who brings him down giving the referee no choice but to award a penalty. Up stepped top score, Marcus Wyllie, to score in the corner despite the keeper going the right way. New Salamis looked to rally and a neat passage of play ended with a shot from distance soaring well over. The next attack from New Salamis was broken up by Asher Yearwood who broke down the right. The ball ended up with Schmidt, whose clever reverse ball picked out Ben Sturgess arriving in the ball. The former Thame man rifled home to double the visitors lead and score his first Rangers goal. With substitutes Brian Haule and Sam Pekun having a big impact Rangers took control. Pekun went close after good work from Haule and Bertie Squire-Adams. The home side hit back with Brooker parrying a snap shot and another neat move ending with the ball fired over on 83 minutes. Brooker's subsequent goal-kick was neatly laid off by Haule into the path of Schmidt. The midfielder cleverly chipped the ball in behind the opponents defence for the onrushing Pekun who coolly slotted home past the advancing keeper to make it three nil. Rangers used all of their experience to manage the final minutes with the excellent Urqhuart and Read at the heart of the Rangers defence in defiant mood. Brooker was forced into one more save, at the feet of the the New Salamis substitute who ended up in the sin bin after conceding a free kick before telling the referee how much he didn't agree with him.

A great win against a very good side. Interesting to note that New Salamis Twitter stopped tweeting on the game after the second goal went in and the Facebook page has no mention of the result. Pity, because they played well and as Rangers manager Mark Eaton said after the game, they are probably the best team we have played so far this season. Nevertheless, a good professional performance from Rangers, who have some tough games to come, not least Tuesday night's visit to an improving Oxhey Jets, who are unbeaten in their last three, including a home draw against table toppers, Leighton Town. This is followed by Saturday's home FA Vase match versus Suffolk based Long Melford.

Rangers Man of the Match: Kieron Schmidt. Another great performance from the former Aylesbury United man. Two excellent assists and a fantastic all round performance.