Despite the re-arranged venue (played away at Navenby, because of the 24 hours of constant rain & drizzle), it was Rangers who were caught half asleep in the first half of this match, despite the 2.30pm kick-off. After the 1st 10 minutes, it was both keepers who traded the early salvos, pulling off brilliant saves to keep the scores level. Cougars were out of sorts & out of shape and despite the best efforts of Sam Booth in goal, Navenby went 1-0 up. Cougars found themselves 2-0 down after 20 mins when indecision up front let a Navenby defender nick the ball & get it swiftly down to the field and the ball was in the net, without barely a tackle being made.

After a serious talk at the break…knowing that they were much better than this, Cougars came out with a more determined attitude and looked a different side. Cameron Steans scored early on in the second half stabbing a leg out at the end of a well timed slide to convert a Jack Sprake pass. Rangers were now on the up, but were prevented from adding to their score, despite much of the possession from the in-form Navenby goalie. A couple of minutes later though, Cougars got their deserved equalizer when Jack Young took his goal well, to bring his season’s tally to 5.

Both teams were evenly matched for the next 5 mins and the game could have gone either way. It was Navenby who took the initiative when Cougars suffered a momentary lack of concentration and were punished with another goal. With 10 minutes to go, Navenby broke through again and scored but Cougars heads refused to go down, and after a flurry of good attacks & corner kicks, were unlucky not to add anything more to the score-line. Indeed, the Navenby keeper pulled off a stunning save from a mis-directed clearance to prevent an own-goal, in the dying minutes.

At the final whistle, both managers agreed it was a tight game & a draw would have been the perfect result to this match with the opposing manager hinting that Cougars should have edged it!

Cougars have to get quicker focussed earlier on in the game as well as tackling with a bit more conviction & to make sure they put the effort in, if they want to return to winning games in the style they did so effectively last week.

Still…It was great to play against a team, so well matched & to spend some time with like-minded coaches who (at the end of the day)...just want the kids to play footy!!