Festive Greetings to our Players, Coaches and Supporters

Wishing you all a warm and relaxing festive break from everyone connected with Halesowen Community Rangers.

What a great first half of the 2011-2012 season we have had so far winning every one of our 12 games in the run up to Christmas. Even Man City haven't achieved that record this season. But before we get complacent, a quick glance at the league table shows that our closest rivals, Bearwood Sports, have sneaked ahead of us by a single point at the head of the table.

Of course, Rangers do have a game in hand over Bearwood, but it's going to be neck and neck as we enter the second half of the season in 2012.

So make sure you are getting plenty of fitness training and the odd kick around, between the left over turkey dinners over the coming week and a half.

Next game will be at home on Sunday 8th January 2012 against Pensnett Harriers. 2.15 kick off.

A Message from Gam after today's match

You will all enjoy a nice hot bath today.

On a serious note a very well done to each and every one of you.

A great way to end 2011 in awful weather conditions. See you all at training on Tuesday.

1) Tuesday is the final day for letters and money for the fun days

2) Subs need to be in ASAP.

Halesowen Community Rangers 7 Netherton Colts West 0

Well done to the lads on another fantastic win, beating Netherton Colts West 7-0 at home this afternoon.

Both teams should be applauded for battling against the dreadful weather conditions today which made passing the ball around extremely difficult.

Goals came from:

Marzouk - 3
Hamza J - 1
Maien - 3

Well done to the defenders who dealt with the two fast Netherton forwards with complete confidence.

Man of the match was Aiman at left back who was pacey, lively and good in the tackle throughout the game.

An excellent win in horrible conditions which keeps us firmly at the top of the division, come on you Rangers!

League table (Division 3) - 5th December 2011

Next weeks game is against Netherton Colts West

On Sunday 11th December 2011 we are playing Netherton Colts West at home.

Kick off 2.15 (on Stourbridge & District website - time to be confirmed by Gam and Reg in the week).

Please note we are not playing Bearwood Sports next week as previously put on the blog, my apologies for the error - Pete

Halesowen Harriers Minor 2 - Halesowen Community Rangers 5

It was the clash of the Halesowen teams again today with the second local derby between Community Rangers and the Harriers Minor in 8 days. If Rangers thought it was going to be easy following our 11-0 victory at home last week we were mistaken and the Harriers made a spirited game of it in very difficult, rainy and increasingly muddy conditions for both sides.

But Rangers did enough to win it, with some good saves from Javon, reliable defending when the ball was pinging around in our box on a few occasions and some great goals from Hamza (2) and a hat trick from Sam who was deservedly awarded man of the match. Our speed up front and passing from midfield to attack made us the better of the two sides. 

Overall a gritty team performance on a small and bobbly pitch which sloped towards both ends and the worst weather conditions we've played in all season (get used to it guys as it's going to get worse). There will be a few well deserved hot baths this evening and I'm not just talking about the players! 

Another 3 points keep us firmly at the top of the division. Next week we are playing Netherton Colts West at home. Netherton are just below mid table in last week's league table, having played 11, won 3, drawn 2 and lost 6, but they seem to be notable for both scoring and conceding goals with 44 for and 42 against making a goal difference of 2. In spite of their league position they are the third highest scoring team in the division after ourselves and Bearwood Sports so this will be a good test for our own goalie and defence (watch out for a class centre forward perhaps as someone is clearly bagging them a lot of goals) but their goals conceded tally also indicates a very vulnerable Netherton defence and keeper.

It promises to be a lively game with plenty of goals and let's hope the weather conditions improve by next weekend (famous last words - prepare for snow).

Well done to all, not the best performance of the season but still a very confident performance once we got going and even after their opening goal we always looked like winning.

Pete - website editor

Messages from Gam and Reg after today's game:

Still a very long way 2 go boys. keep the hard work up boyz!!!!!!!!! - Gam

Well battled everyone, hard tough conditions today but we showed we can do it  - Reg

We are top of the league, we are top of the league!

Congratulations to all the team at HCR FC, coaches, players and even spectators for a fantastic first half of the season (actually we still have 2 games to play before the halfway mark).

As we go into the game tomorrow on December 3rd, we have played 10 and won all 10 of our games giving us an incredible total of 30 points.

But as the great managers like Sir Alex Ferguson would no doubt remind us, it's never over till the last match of the season, so now is not the time to take the foot off the pedal. Tomorrow's game is against the same opponents that we beat decisively at home last Sunday, Halesowen Harriers Minor, but this should not be a reason for complacency and it would be great to see everyone really up for it mentally and physically to keep the points tally at 100% by winning our next two matches against Harriers tomorrow and Netherton next week.

Well done to everyone... come on you Rangers!

Pete - Blog editor

The game this Sunday (3rd December 2011)

This Sunday we are playing Halesowen Harriers Minor.

Kick off is 14.00 at their ground.

Things to remember for Sunday.

Make your own way to the game and be there by 1pm at the latest (Newfield Park Halesowen, where we train on a Saturday morning). Please organise your own lifts home after the game as me and Gamel will be going straight to a meeting.

Also remember to bring:

1. Any subs money - £15 a month (we are now in December).

2. Club Membership form

3. Activity day out form and money

If you have any other outstanding forms, please bring them along.

Thank you.

Reg