Romone Rose

Rangers Under-18's got their Puma Youth Alliance League Championship hopes back on track with a 3-1 victory against Colchester on Saturday.

However, the destination of the League title seems destined to go down to the wire with both Gillingham and Southend winning their respective matches.

The Gills remain top of the pile - four points ahead of Joe Gallen's side, while Southend sit second, a point clear of the R's.

Gallen's side still have two games in hand on the leaders and, as such, the fate of the Championship remains very firmly in their own hands.

In blustery conditions, Rangers got off to the perfect start inside 16 minutes.

Billy Coyne set Romone Rose free through the heart of the U's defence and the pacy striker took a couple of touches, before sending his shot arrowing into the top corner for his ninth goal of the campaign.

The R's doubled their lead six minutes later - Rose turning provider for his strike partner Angelo Balanta, who finished with great aplomb.

Rangers continued to press forward, looking to put the game beyond their opponents' reach before half time; Lee Brown saw his curling free kick well saved and Rose struck another long range effort narrowly wide of the far post.

With the clock ticking towards half-time, Chris Arthur won a corner for the R's and Coyne's inch-perfect delivery was powerfully headed home by Matt O'Brien.

Joe Gallen

Colchester bagged a late consolation ten minutes from, time, but that was all the visitors could muster.

Indeed, it was Rangers who finished in the ascendancy, with Balanta denied a second when he was adjudged to be in an offside position after smashing the ball into the back of the net.

Gallen was delighted to see his 'game-plan' work and was also pleased with the players' response after two games without a win.

"We spoke at length after last week's draw about the importance of getting out of the blocks quicker than we had been doing - and that happened.

"We were much sharper from the off, and for the first time since the beginning of February we managed to score in the first half!

"We completely dominated the first half and deserved to be three up. The conditions meant we had to play on the counter-attack in the second period, but we can play that way as we've got pace up front, and we coped very well.

"Hopefully we can take this result forward to next week and keep our fingers crossed that the other results go our way.''

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