St Francis Rangers succumbed to defeat on the opening day of their SCFL Division 2 campaign, as two well taken goals from Oscar Weddell ensured that Copthorne left a sun soaked Colwell Ground with all three points in the bag.
The home side started brightly from the offset and could have opened the scoring from kick off when Max Wilcox stole possession in midfield, his low cross into the box failing to find a St Francis foot. Ellis Common also went close for Rangers on 11 minutes, when his free kick from just outside the box flashed wide..
After surviving that early spell of pressure, the away side began to create chances of their own. Danger man Weddell was Copthorne’s main source of chances all afternoon, his angled drive flying narrowly wide of Josh Greens far post following a quick throw in with 15 gone.
Stu Cameron also spurned a glorious opportunity to put the away side ahead, when he could only tamely prod his effort wide when clean through on 25 minutes. Home goalkeeper Green produced a fine smothering save moments later from defender Sean Banks, who almost capitalised from another long ball.
The visitors were almost made to pay for failing to convert those chances on 32 minutes. Following good work from Jake Lindsey in midfield, Oli Munt forced a fine save from visiting keeper Jamie Craven, who stuck out a toe to deflect Munt’s clever close range effort around the post.
With half time looming, it was Copthorne who were to eventually break the deadlock, when Weddel crashed the ball past Green into the bottom left corner from close range, after St Francis failed to deal with a floated free kick into the danger zone. That was the last action of a closely contested first half.
The second period followed a similar pattern, with both sides cancelling each other. Willcox saw an audacious volleyed effort fly high and wide on 57 minutes, before Munts speculative effort from a short corner deflected agonisingly wide of the near post on 63 minutes.
The visitors though they had double their lead on 70 minutes, when a long free kick was flicked on into a dangerous area and sent back across goal, however substitute Freddie Cartwright could not apply the finishing touch.
Saints substitute Sid O’Neill thought he had levelled matters with 15 minutes remaining, when his powerful run and driven shot was brilliantly headed over the bar by a recovering Copthorne defender with goalkeeper Craven stranded.
With the Saints pushing for an equaliser, Copthorne sealed the three points in the dying embers of the game, when Weddell collected the ball from a long clearance and calmly tapped into an empty net, after Green had pushed up for a corner in search of a Saints equaliser.
That was the final action of a tough afternoon for St Francis, as Copthorne saw out the final seconds of the game to come away with a hard fought three points.
St Francis XI: Green (GK), Common, Marchant, Tobias (O’Neil 54’), Rawlingson, Sherin, Lindsey, Little, Wilcox (Wright 60’), Munt (Clark 75’) Littlecott (Ramsis 60’).
Subs: Wright, Ramsis, O’Neil, Clark, Cranfield
Goals:
Weddel, 45,90