MUMBLES Rangers Ricky Kerr scored in the 90th minute to wrap up the victory and a vital three points in a pulsating West Wales Premier League clash at Underhill Park.
The visitors CKSV belied their lowly league status to give the home team a real scare.
CKSV started the game with high energy and seemed to get the bounce of the ball with their determined play especially from their midfield play.
It was slightly against the run of play when in the 12th minute of the game Rangers’ in-form striker Elliot Smith turned on a sixpence within the visitor’s penalty area and placed his low shot into the far corner of the goal net wrong footing the his markers and goalkeeper. 1-0.
CKSV responded within a couple of minutes when the Rangers defence made a hash of trying to clear the ball in their own six yards area and only succeeded in presenting the ball to CKSV’s Tyler Caul to score from close range to level 1-1.
CKSV continued to press and after some good interplay on the left side of the Rangers defence it was CKSV’s lively striker Ben Grant who angled a quality strike across the Rangers goalkeeper into the far corner of the goal. 1-2.
CKSV continued to press and had claims turned down for a penalty after they saw a hand touch the ball.
A CKSV free kick from some twenty yards out rattled the top of the Rangers crossbar.
Rangers heeded the warnings and started to find their form and were pushing for an equaliser.
A free kick played into the CKSV penalty area seemed to deflect off the knee of a visitor’s defender and into the goal. The referee however blew his whistle and disallowed the goal for offside against the Rangers attackers.
With a couple of minutes to go before half time Rangers got their equaliser when their central defender Liam Brown rose above the visitors defence and from close range headed the ball into the net, 2-2.
Rangers knew that they were in a game and the visitors were proving stubborn opponents.
Rangers did up their collective game and tempo in the second half but were rocked back on their heels when their goalkeeper Callum Andrews sprinted out of his goal to the edge of his area to stop an attack but instead of clearing the ball , his late tackle on succeeded in upending the CKSV forward. The referee had an easy decision to make and pointed to the penalty spot.
Up stepped CKSV’s Ross Buckley Turner who dispatched his spot kick into the net to restore his side’s lead 2-3.
Rangers players and bench checked the time left in the game as they knew they had a real battle on their hands to get something from this game.
Rangers pressed at every opportunity and had to be lively in defence not to concede another visitor goal.
In the 76th minute a sigh of relief for Rangers and their support when Elliot Smith got his second goal of the game when he reacted quickly to strike a bouncing ball in the penalty area and beat the goalkeeper to make the game all square at 3-3.
It was backs to the wall now for a tiring CKSV defence for whom Robert Owens, Kevin Davies, Thomas Morgans and Rehaan Akhtar were scrapping for every ball and managing to frustrate the Rangers attacks.
Rangers kept their belief and got their reward when the ball broke free to Rangers Ricky Kerr inside the 18 yards area. Kerr struck a sweet low shot into the back of the CKSV net to give his side victory with little to no time for CKSV to respond.
