1/3/08 - Stafford Rangers v Farsley Celtic Preview

Stafford Rangers are expecting their biggest crowd of the season when new manager Steve Bull MBE takes charge of his first home game on Saturday, 1st March.

Farsley Celtic are the visitors for what can easily be described as a ‘six-pointer’. The Yorkshire side, winners in a close game at the Throstle Nest on the opening day of the season, lie one place and seven points ahead of Stafford with both clubs played 31 out of 46 games. It can also be described as a sort of ‘old firm’ clash as well!

The appointment of the Wolves legend has captured the imagination of both Rangers and other local football fans and the profile of the club has been raised with plenty of good-news media coverage over the past week. Robert Plant, the Led Zeppelin lead vocalist, gave Rangers and Bully a plug on the BBC’s The One Show on Monday evening.

Of course, the thing that really matters will be getting three points and Stafford go into the game on the back of a four-match unbeaten run – two wins followed by two draws. In their last game on Tuesday night at Histon, the team chased right until the end to earn a draw with two very late goals.

With strikers Marco Adaggio, Del Olaoye and Nathan Smith struggling to be fit, Bull has recruited Liam Hughes on an initial one-month loan from Wolves. The 19-year-old Gornal born forward has a good goalscoring record in Wolves Reserves and recently had a spell on loan at League Two side Bury at the end of last year. Jemiah Richards will again be missing for Boro as he recovers from his broken metatarsal.

Visitors Farsley, making their first-ever visit to Marston Road, are hoping several key players will recover from knocks in time to face Rangers. One of them,vastly experienced George Santos, is expected to recover from an eye injury and strikers Colin Heath and Tris Whitman have been added to the squad. Curtis Aspden is expected to continue in goal in place of the injured Tom Morgan. On-loan David McNiven, scorer last Saturday in the 2-1 defeat at Exeter, can’t play under the terms of his loan deal.

Currently Farsley are on a run of one win from their last six games in all competitions.

Stafford and Farsley have met on one previous occasion – the opening day of the current season when Farsley won 1-0 with an early goal scored by Damian Reeves.