Paul Bremner  was back in the Ranger colours in the Hudson cup, and his presence was felt across the ground, but he wasn’t the sole reason for an about face in Ranger form, a coherent team effort, and basic following of coach Whitemore’s instructions, brought Rangers back to the form, this side knew they possessed.

Whitemore was adamant that if the side was to be successful in this game, it would need to come from a solid defensive effort, plus he looked to last years remaining premiership experience for leadership in the middle of the park, in particular Hingston, Schipper and Nicholson.

There were numerous changes due to some unavailability, thanks in part to the long weekend, but in general, Whitemore had a pretty strong line up from which to challenge a much improved City line up.

The defence was on notice to deal with all challenges, and did so with greater focus on their defensive shape.  Luke Tuma in particular stepping up to the level required, clinical in the air and composed with the ball on the deck.  Demiejer, Tams and Luck were also in control, and Lichtendonk in goals was rarely tested in the first half.

Having Hingston back in midfield was a clear plus as he set about dominating the middle, good support from Des Schipper had the distribution back on track, and this set up many a chance for the forwards to pounce on, some great overlapping  runs from Demiejer in part created the first goal that was finished by Nicholson on the second effort.

Nicholson had doubled his, and the team tally when a long ball from Lichtendonk fell perfectly, and Nicholson’s pace and fitness did the rest, though Whitmore deducted the goal from the over all tally, stating “unattractive football did not deserve goals”.  This reporter begs to differ.

Marshall Pooley was called in from work after Lichtendonk strained a hamstring mid way through the first half, but other than that there were no changes at the half time break.

The second half was more of the same with good switching, great overlapping runs from both wings and generally massive improvement across the park, making for some brilliant football at times.  City had no answers, clearly flustered with the presence of Bremner who scored twice in the second half, with further contributions from everyone’s  favourite Gabriel Tams, who was given 15 minutes in midfield, he showed that a month in defence has cost him nothing in terms of his goal scoring ability, cutting in and defeating two defenders before he slammed home the shot from 10 yards out on the right side of goal, Jago also got the monkey off his back after some strong but goalless performances.  Bremner put Jago through with a pinpoint through ball created from a darting run on Jago’s part, Jago side stepped the keeper and buried his first 2010 Hudson cup goal with a sprinkling of magic.

Aykiran could be heard making the declaration after 5-0, the 6^th  goal confirming the fact, a rout! for the first time in 2010.

Adam Whitemore saying after the game "I was reasonably happy with the performance.  Defensivly much better, and more pressure on the ball.  We played a little too direct at times."

"I thought (Stephan) Jago got the goal he deserved, Luke Tuma was excellent."

"The workrate was really high throughout and I was happy we were ruthless and burried them (City)" Whitemore said.

Northernrangers.com have come under some criticism for negative reporting during this years Hudson Cup, this effort certainly gave us nothing to be negative about.

A polished performance by each and everyone on the park, must surely give confidence to Whitemore and Ludby, that what has been left from the exodus of 2009, will be more than capable of putting in some big performances in 2010, especially with the return of Bremner in his current form.  The side followed the coaches game plan to a T, and returning players will find it hard to get back into the side next week.

Northern Rangers Vs Launceston City (Consolation game 1) Steve Hudson Cup.

Northern Rangers 6 (Nicholson 2, Bremner 2, Tams, Jago) def Launceston City 0