Rocester 1 Stafford Rangers 0

Stafford Rangers pre-season preparations got off to a bad start as they fell to a shock defeat at Midland Football Alliance outfit Rocester.

It was an early goal that proved to be Rangers' undoing, with James McCarron swooping highest to score the only goal of the game as early as the fourth minute.

Stafford were to left to rue a host of missed opportunities, most of which failed to trouble home goalkeeper Paul Wood, with Rocester having another goal disallowed in the second half.

McCarron's early intervention had been the first moment of note at Hillsfield. It was as good a header as you will see anywhere.

A corner into the box fell straight onto the bonce of McCarron, who appeared from nowhere, giving Stafford goalkeeper Danny Alcock no chance.

Back came Rangers. David McNiven missed a glorious chance to write himself back into good books in the 29th minute.

He latched on to a ball through and found himself one-on-one with Wood, only to shoot tamely into the goalkeeper's hands.

The home defence were all over the place by this point. Twice slip ups allowed in Dave McPherson and Andre Francis respectively- only for them both to fail to get a shot on target.

The second half was all Stafford, apart from Rocester's disallowed goal for a suspect offside ruling in the 70th minute.

Nick Wellecomme was at the heart of most of what was produced, setting up chances for Tom Ingram and latching onto to a choice Alex Gibson's cross which went narrowly wide.

STAFFORD: Alcock, Francis (Gibson), Pierpoint (McGuire), Daniel, Reid (McMahon), Wilson, Amos, McPherson (Loukes), Palmer (Ingram), McNiven (Jarrett), Wellecomme.