Fuelled by the previous week’s win, and motivated to continue the momentum, the Redbacks went into the match with much the same line-up as that which had produced the win a week before. But the opposition was skilled and physical, and it took a while for the Redbacks to gain any control within the match.

Despite the home side’s dominance, they failed to apply any real pressure to goalkeeper Joanne Jones, thanks in large part to the strong defensive line of Alicia Bales, Jesse Morgan, Tamara Dixon and Maria Wilson. In fact, the first real opportunity of the match came to the Redbacks, when a cross from Tamara Burns was met by Amelia Clacher on the full, and volleyed just over the goals.

The Rangers seemed frustrated by their inability to score, despite their midfield dominance, and at half-time, with the scores still level at 0-0, the game looked like it could go either way.

“We’d really pushed ourselves in that first half,” player Tamara Burns said.

“MVR were a very physical team, and some of our players had pushed themselves to the point of exhaustion.

“It meant having to change the line-up a little in the second half, but we felt that if we continued with our game plan, we could continue to throw them off theirs.”

With a slightly revised line-up, the second half kicked off, with more opportunities seeming to fall the Redbacks way. The move of Dixon to centre-mid, and Wilson to left-mid saw the attacking force of the team opening up dramatically, and Rangers scrambling to shut down the opportunities. Despite the change in momentum, it was Rangers who found the back of the net first, when a well-placed shot from out wide to the far corner of the goal was unable to be stopped by Jones, giving the home side a 1-0 lead.

Undeterred, the Redbacks continued to push on, and ten minutes later, a well placed pass from Burns to Clacher, saw Clacher lob one over the MVR keeper, and bring the scores back level.

Momentum seemed to have shifted at this point, with the Redbacks dominating possession.

The Redbacks even had the opportunity to take the lead when Burns found herself in front of goals with only the keeper to beat, but as seems to be the pattern for this season, the ball sailed over the crossbar, and the elusive maiden goal for Burns remains to be seen.

With 15 minutes to go, a faced pace counter-attack from the home side managed to out-gun the Redbacks defence, and this time a well-placed low shot proved too difficult to save, and the home side took the lead and ultimate win, 2-1.

“We were a little disappointed to lose, as you would expect, but overall we were really happy with how we’d played,” Burns said.

“Our formation is coming together nicely, and whilst there’s definitely still room for improvement, and our ability to capitalise on our attacking opportunities needs to improve, overall we should be proud of how we performed.”

Next week sees the Ladies head to South West Rocks, whilst the Premier League men will return from the bye, and take on Port Saints in Port Macquarie.