SOCCER
CANOBOLAS Rangers bowed out of the Western Premier League under 18 grand final race on Sunday but it was how they reached the final that was noteworthy.
Rangers lost the final 2-0 to Bathurst '75 but they got to the semi-finals by winning six games in a row, sometimes with only eight players.
"I'm pretty happy with the way the boys played this year and where they finished," Rangers coach Andrew Stedman said.
"They went a lot further than I thought they would halfway through the season."
At one stage Rangers lost four players due to representative commitments, and then a few more through suspension and injury meaning they would often field just eight or nine players.
In the final against ‘75 Stedman said it was a case of missed opportunities that saw Rangers at the wrong end of a 2-0 score line.
"In the second half I think we had the majority of the chances and we should have won 5-2 but they didn't go in."
Bathurst ‘75 scored two goals in the opening 20 minutes of the game and Rangers simply couldn't come back.
"They were not great goals," Stedman said.
"One was a mistake by us and one was a kick that went in from 30 yards out. For the rest of the game, that's when we woke up but it was too late."
Stedman said Jono Perry and Brendan Roweth were outstanding in the mid-field along with Wes Roweth at the back.