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Mark's message

Submitted by Mark Cowan on Saturday, 23 March 2019

It‘s been a while since we did this, and for obvious reasons, not enough room in the programme to talk about everything. Focusing on the past eight or nine games, has seen us get back to some form. Seven wins out of nine isn’t bad going, considering who we’ve had to play. South Shields were never three goals better than us and we certainly were the better side against Hebburn, just unfortunate we didn’t get anything out of it. For me, injuries have played a crucial part in our season, key players missing a big part of the season, we get one player back and lose another! Saying that, however, the lads who have come in have took their chance and been fantastic, which is testament to the character we have throughout the whole squad. This group of lads, every single one of them, are an absolute pleasure to work with, show great desire, commitment and have a great sense of togetherness, which plays a big part in the club‘s success, and, if it we hadn’t had so many injuries, I have no doubt we would be top three going into today’s game against Newton Aycliffe. We played Newton Aycliffe a few weeks back and the character shown, battling right to the end, proves the lads really are in this together. Same against Whitley Bay and the same against Whickham on Tuesday night.

So what are our aims for the remainder of the season? Simple, we’ve got five games left and we want to win our remaining fixtures, and see where we finish. We did it last season, so there’s reason why we can’t emulate that and try and beat last seasons top four finish. I fully expect Newton Aycliffe to give us another tough game, like they did at their place, but if we stick together, show the same level of commitment, show our quality and desire, I’m sure we can come away with all three points.

It‘s also good to see Stevie Callen finally kicking a ball and continuing his rehabilitation after his surgery, which will be a massive plus for the 2019/20 season. Stevie would be a huge miss in any side and is still an important player for RCA, whether he gets some game time this season. He just might.

Finally, a quick message to Dylan Elliott, who’s had a horrendous time with injuries this season, and suffered a recurrence of the same injury, in training, that’s kept him out for months. Dylan was just coming back, made three appearances, working hard on his fitness and showing how much of an important player he is to the team, when he suffered the set back. Speaking to Dylan after it happened, the kid was obviously gutted, as was everyone else at the club, but we will have him fit and ready for the start of the season, which will be a massive boost for next seasons plans. Chin up Dylan.