News

We have a home draw in the First Round Proper of this year's The Buildbase FA Vase. We play Bridlington at Meadow Park on Saturday, 13 October with a three o'clock kick off.

The tie renews recent acquaintances. On 3 October 2015 we beat Bridlington 3-2 at home in the same stage of the competition. Two years earlier the Yorkshire club beat us 2-0 at their ground.

RCA's goal keeping coach Lenny French reports on life at Meadow Park.

First, I would like to thank everybody at the club for their warm welcome.

It’s been a bit of an indifferent start to the season, a couple of defeats followed by a couple of good wins.

One thing that stands out for me is the quality in the depth of the squad of players we have. Every player wants to be here, every player goes out and gives 100% for 90 minutes. Being 4-0 down away from home to a side from a higher league and bringing it back to 6-6 just shows what characters are in the squad.

Saturday saw Ashington visit Meadow Park and also had young Andy step up and make his first start in the sticks as Socks was unavailable.

We went down to ten men early on in the game, but that didn’t stop the desire to win the game and we went on to not just win but to dominate the game, every player from 1 to 17 worked hard for each other, and that is what’s going to bring success to the club.

Lastly, I’m looking forward to getting back and working with Socks and Andy, they seem to have been having it easy these last few weeks.

Enjoy tonight’s game!

Cheers

Lenny

RCA's Assistant Manager, Gary Errington, reports on the Clitheroe match.

Wow! They say anything can happen in the FA Cup and they’re not wrong. I’ve never been involved in a game quite like it. We were 4-0 down after 50 minutes and then the fight back began. Not before a good tongue lashing in the dressing room and a few home truths told to the shell-shocked squad. It was a time for leaders and characters to step up as we were getting outworked and outplayed, but the reaction was superb. It was a game with not great deal of quality but a lot of big hearts from the boys.  We ended up with a 6-6 draw against Clitheroe, who were more shell-shocked than us at end of game. It felt like a victory for us.  The management team were so pleased with the reaction and never-say-die attitude. A special mention to the traveling support, who were great, and the singing was superb and we at the club all appreciate it.

The journey home was superb with a great team bonding drinking session which included some great singing from the new lads who just joined the club. There is always a downside of these trips and this was who had to sit next to Swaz on the way home and go through his holiday pictures again. Luckily it wasn’t me. 

Dave Hill and George McKitterick, stalwart volunteers at Sunderland RCA FC, spending their Monday morning doing some essential maintenance on our elderly tractor. Soon to be replaced though; the tractor that is, not Dave and George.