Another good workout as Rangers' win again.

The second friendly of the Cornwall tour took place on Wednesday evening in down in Bodmin just two days after the R's had put in a good performance in Tavistock so we hoped to see another good work out for the boys on this outing.

I must admit that before setting off on the 460 mile round trip that I did question mine and Sam's sanity as we were about to take to the road yet again, also because we have full intentions of attending the Torquay friendly on Friday evening..... the things that you do when you support your club eh! I think that by the end of the season one of us will be in a straight-jacket or in a padded cell bouncing off the walls somewhere.

In our journey down we went through through some awful conditions, some of which made driving very difficult as I could barely see in front of me, for the last hour of the journey I was praying that the rain was going to clear as I had failed to pick up my hoody so I was just in my polo shirt and if the heavens opened during the game(which they did) then I was going to be drenched for the second friendly in a row, it's becoming a habit these days.

We arrived with 10 minutes to spare this time around and even managed to pick a decent spot just past the halfway line with a great view of the Bodmin penalty area as we expected there to be plenty of action up there and witness many more goals.

Todays first half team in a 4-2-3-1 formation was :-
Kenny; Leigertwood, Hall, Gorkss, Connolly; Derry, Faurlin; Mackie, Buzsaky, Hogan; Helguson.



Rangers' begun the half brightly as Faurlin flashed an effort over the bar after good work by Hogan and a poor clearance from the Bodmin defence allowed Faurlin with the goalscoring opportunity but his effort flew over the bar.
Just a minute or two later the deadlock was broken via the tricky man Hogan.
Bodmin's defence once again failed to clear their lines and Hogan broke clear and smashed his shot into the back of the net from 10 yards out.
The early goal certainly speared the players to go on and try to add to the tally. Buzsaky was seeing more of the ball and was looking to get involved as often as possible and he found himself with a great opportunity when Hogan's cross found Buzsaky in the area and the Hungarian's header was superbly tipped over the bar.
Shaun Derry was the next person to try and get in on the action and when his shot flew just over u could just sense that another goal was inevitable, and it came on the next attack.
Jamie Mackie dispossessed a Bodmin defender and attacked goal before unleashed his effort from just inside the box and rustled into the back of the net.
There cetainly seems to be a good understanding and some partnerships being built up during training as players just seemed to know who was going to be running into the spaces and everything looks natural. Derry and Faurlin in the centre of midfield looks to be a partnership that is going to be difficult to split up. Derry sits and grafts away as Faurlin works alongside him and also joins up with the attack whenever he can, I will definitely be keeping an eye out on these two as I think this could be a partnership that will make us difficult to break down and beat.
Rangers; continued to attack for the rest of the half and could've easily added another three or four to their tally as Buzsaky had an effort well saved, Helguson saw a header fly just wide and also had a few other close shaves. What became evident to me is that it seemed as if players wanted to set Helguson up and get him on the scoresheet as soon as possible.
Bodmin had one shot during the first half and it came when one of the strikers broke clear and had just Kenny to beat from 18 yards out but the R's stopper was more than equal to it and produced a good save and pushed the bal to safety.



No more goals were scored before half timembut things were promising.
During the interval me and Sam walked around the pitch to the opposite side so we could again see plenty of action and hopefully a few more goals before we took to the road again.

The second half team to take to the field in the same 4-2-3-1 was :-
Cerny; Connolly, Stewart, Ramage, Borrowdale; Derry, Faurlin; Mackie, Hogan, Parker; German.

With Leigertwood departing at half time, the captains armband was passed onto Peter Ramage and gave him the opportunity to highlight his leadership qualities.



Rangers' continued to retain the ball better than their opponents but the attacking qualities were stifled by Bodmin's contant pressing high up the pitch and rarely gave the R's players a chance to settle on the ball. Due to this I must say it did make the game more interesting and tested the players and their fitness levels at such an early stage of the pre season.
Jamie Mackie came off on the hour mark, and the Rangers' fans gave him a very good reception as he departed. Mackie does look to be a very promising prospect for the coming season. Mackie was replaced by Leigertwood, who in turn took Mackie's position on the right hand side of the attacking three forwards, nice to see some experimentation.
Moments later it was 3-0.
Hogan attacked the left hand side and his teasing cross was met by a combination of Antonio German and a Bodmin defender and the ball made it's way into the back of the net. Judging by the reaction of the players I can only assume that it was an own goal.
Josh Parker saw a lot of the ball down the left hand side and he regularly tried his best to make opportunities and crash any efforts in on goal but failed to test the goalkeeper on many occasions. Parker's long throw however looked to be a dangerous weapon and worried the Bodmin defenders on a few occasions.
With 15 minutes to go it was Faurlin's time to depart and he was replaced by the returning Fitz Hall and he took his place alongside Derry in the centre midfield, much to Sam's delight!
With 10 minutes to go it looked as if the Ranger's players fitness levels and desire to want to score more goals took its toll on our hosts for the evening.
Parker broke down the right hand side and rolled the bal into the direction of German and he seemingly had a bread and butter opportunity but he put his shot just wide of the Bodmin left hand post.
After this chance me and Sam started our walk around the pitch towards the exit so we could try and get a quick exit from the area. Just as we reached our postion near the exit we saw goal number four.
Leigertwood squared for German and the youngster made no mistake from close range.
We started texting people the update of the score and just as I finished writing "4-0 German" I looked up and saw Josh Parker hit an effort from the edge of the area and hit the back of the net, a goal that was well deserved for his efforts. The text then had -0 parker added to it before sending it onto the Rangers' faithful that asked me to keep them upto date over the course of the evening.
Just three minutes later it was 6-0. Derry won the ball in midfield and laid the ball off to Leigertwood and he in turn played the ball to Hogan and he made no mistake from just inside the box.
Well if Hogan is a target for Leicester then I would worry if his pre season continues in this fashion because now after two games he has four goals, surely Real Madrid will come sniffing soon.....



Tonights game was much more of a challenge in comparison to Monday's match. Bodmin looked a lot more organised in defence and midfield after the first 45 minutes and made the lads work a lot harder and gave the back four a lot more time on the ball and a chance to see how well organised we really are back there, but with Bodmin only having two shots on goal and only one save being made by Kenny in the first half, it would be nice to see them tested on Friday at Torquay and we can see where we are fitness wise against a tidy League Two outfit.

The journey home saw us pass by Plymouth's ground, a place that we have never seen a Rangers' side win in the 5 visits there. We took an unexpected detour that added 45minutes onto our journey as I missed our junction on the M5 and had to continue up to Gloucester before finally getting off and then arriving back home at 2am, its going to hurt in the morning I can bet you that!

We move onto Torquay on Friday night and then Borehamwood on Saturday afternoon, where hopefully more of the Lofty Heights crew will be in attendance, we'll see you then.