Sporting 87 condemned Ransomes Sports to their first league defeat since mid-October with a 3-2 win that moved them off the bottom of the table.
They went ahead early in the game, capitalising on a tentative start by the home side before they deservedly doubled the advantage mid-way through the first half. Ransomes pulled the game level just after the break but that could not mask how poor Ransomes were and the visitors sealed their first league victory of the season direct from a corner.
Sporting tore into Ransomes right from the onset and set the tone with an opener after only six minutes. It was a scruffy goal and one that Ransomes should have defended as a mis-hit shot managed to evade a swarm of Ransomes defenders in the box before agonisingly rolling past the outstretched dive of Jack Friston.
The pattern thereafter was Sporting dominating. They had a hunger unmatched by Ransomes, they were doing a good press, constantly turning over Ransomes as the home side looked vunerable.
It became more uncomfotable for Ransomes when Brandon Archer limped off injured after only eight minutes, and they could not find the breathing space to settle down as they never really settled from that slow start.
Sporting were surrounded by a sense of serenity after only 19 minutes as they went two goals ahead, and in complete control. Their confidence was increased whereas Ransomes looked as if their fate would simply be one of damage limitation.
The defensive selection for Ransomes had looked makeshift with the late call-off of both centre backs, enforcing how the home side set up. Sporting were quick and direct and could sense the spaces in behind Ransomes defensive line. In comparison, Ransomes were meek and uncertain throughout, lacking basic oomph, and they were powder-puff in the final third. And then, towards the end of the first half, they were not as the home side had something to build on after 41 minutes.
Yani Duka threaded a cross-field diagonal ball through for debutant Jamie Sandilands to latch on to and as he advanced on goal, he clipped a precise ball past the oncoming keeper and somehow, Ransomes were back in the game.
Sporting held a deserved half-time lead, but the visitors were rocked by Mo Fike’s equalising goal, which had not been advertised, four minutes after the re-start. Yani Duka was once again the provider as his pass found Fike in a crowded penalty area and the striker demonstrated a poacher’s instinct as he rounded the keeper on an angle to fire home past two covering defenders on the goal-line. It should have been the impetus for Ransomes to go on and win the game – sadly they remained incapable of doing this.
There was then a childlike defensive implosion that allowed Sporting to regain the lead four minutes later. That it came direct from a corner was both sickening and unsurprising from a Ransomes point of view because, with the absence of a recognised centre half, they routinely failed to defend properly from them all game.
Sporting had their rhythm back and showed the greater personality whereas it was weird to see Ransomes in such passive mood, creating so little thereafter – they did not have (on the day) what was needed to hurt the visitors.
There will be frustration at the goals Ransomes conceded and they will be required to show a different side to their game in their closing game of 2024 when Hope Church are the visitors. They will need to take lessons from this defeat because they haven’t had many like that. They have done well and have been competitive over the past two months, but they didn’t do the right things on this occasion against an opponent who were better than us on the day.