Rangers plotting escape route
Stafford Rangers caretaker bosses Neil Grayson and Kevin Street are plotting an escape route for the beleaguered Blue Square Premier club.
Stafford Rangers caretaker bosses Neil Grayson and Kevin Street are plotting an escape route for the beleaguered Blue Square Premier club.
Chairman Jon Downing and the club's directors have given the twosome the green light to stay in charge over the vital Christmas and New Year programme.
And after some positive performances, plenty of goals – and the club's first home win of the season, veteran striker Grayson says there is no reason why Rangers cannot be playing Blue Square Premier football again next season.
"We've only had half a season so far, so there are plenty of points left to play for," said the 43-year-old.
"The first target for Kevin and me is to get the club out of the bottom four. Once we've done that, hopefully we can carry on picking up points and put some daylight between ourselves and the relegation zone.
"There's enough talent in the squad to do that – and don't forget we still have decent players to come back in this season, like Marco Adaggio and Del Olaoye."
The caretakers' record before this weekend's Setanta Shield tie against York was drawn one, lost one and won one. However, within those statistics is an underlying trend – six goals scored in the last two matches, when Grayson and Street have had a real impact on the way the team plays.
"We showed at Aldershot what we can do. Even though we unluckily lost, we still scored three goals away from home against the league leaders in front of a hostile 2,000-plus crowd. We didn't play quite as well against Ossett, but it was still good enough to get our first home win.
"That was really important – we have a string of important games coming up over Christmas and the New Year and most of them are at home. They will be difficult games, but if we can keep our own form up, we can keep the crowd behind us and progress from there.
"We've told the players we want them to go out and attack teams and try to score some goals. When you're chasing a game, you're always up against it, but if we can get our noses in front, you have something to hang on to and we can try to go on and win games," said Grayson, who has been on the scoresheet in each of the last two matches.
While Rangers were tackling one of Grayson's former clubs, York City, this weekend in the Setanta Shield, the FA Trophy draw pitted the club against another – Forest Green Rovers.
The teams met at the same stage two years ago, when Grayson scored the winner as Rangers, then Nationwide North underdogs, pulled off a shock win over Conference rivals. Rovers scorer in a 2-1 defeat that day was a certain Guy Madjo.
Rangers reached the quarter-final, bowing out to Woking in a replay.
