Kris Macdonald's Post Match Reaction

Player/Manager Kris Macdonald admitted that he was glad that his team had been able to gain their first point in three matches, but was equally as frustrated that they couldn’t have taken all three in a good game against Kippax FC Reserves.

Danny Gore had given Rangers a 23rd minute lead from the spot after a deliberate handball in the six yard area had prevented a certain goal. The infringement not only lead ultimately to a goal, but also saw Kippax reduced to ten men following the dismissal of the guilty player.

The scores were level in the 36th minute when a counter attack had seen the ball pulled back to the player at the edge of the area, and his shot beat Lewis Mallinson to restore parity.

On the game itself …

To a certain extent, it does stop the rot of losing which we seemed to have found ourselves in over the past few weeks. We haven’t played to our best in the last five or six weeks, but we have trained hard and have been saying that it is coming and things will change, but it’s just not clicking at the moment. We are trying to get there and you can see that, but we should have tested their keeper more, especially as they were reduced to ten men for a good seventy minutes of the game. A think that, apart from the penalty and a couple of saves in the second half, he hasn’t really had a lot to do.

We are getting into the right positions and getting some great crosses into the box but nobody seems to be able to get on the end of them at the moment. As I have said to the lads, we just need to keep working at it and producing the build up play that we are doing and it will come. It is a point picked up and that has stopped the rot and hopefully we will now see a change in direction.

I think that Kippax probably deserved a point and they did produce a good display. I’m happy about certain things as recently we would have been coming in at half-time two or three-one down. The second half I thought we produced some great play, drove forward well and really caused Kippax some issues, we just need goals, but that will come.

On the wing play and scoring …

I’ve just said to the guys in the dressing room that Phil (Turner) and Brad (Spencer), when he came on, were beating their men and getting quality balls into the box, but we needed to be a bit braver in attacking the ball with different runs. The movement is there and we will get back into the right rhythm, but a few times players were making the same runs and that limited us. It’s something that we will work on, but I’m confident that we will be back to scoring regularly again.

On Kippax’s early sending off being a hinderance to Rangers …

It can work both ways if I’m being honest. When a team go down to ten men, especially early on in a match, they seem to raise their game because they know that they have to! That obviously means that the other team has to do that as well and for most of it, I though that we did, maybe not as a constantly as we should have in the first forty-five, but especially in the second half, we played some great football.

On the keeper’s challenge on Phil Turner …

I think that it’s a red card, but to be fair to the referee, she has come over and explained her decision and said that there was a defender who was running behind the keeper and covering round the back. Would he have a caught Phil if he had beaten the keeper is a different story. I thought it would have been a booking at least, just because of the foul, but in the end, she has made her decision and we have to and will respect that.