Callum Patton on the attack during the second half of the match.
We welcomed our visitors from Whitley Bay to Sunderland LGV Park for this afternoon’s Ebac Northern League Division 1 fixture.
The visitors are flying high this season with five league wins out of six under the leadership of Nick Gray who has transformed the team.
RCA have hit a bit of a blip after their early season promise. Injuries to key players have not helped the cause and the injury to club Captain Dan Hawkins has been a big blow to the team.
There were two changes made to the starting XI with Denver Morris and Michael Annang-Colquhoun replacing Nathan Lawrence and Andrew Johnson.
The teams lined up as follows:
Sunderland RCA: Marrs, Morris, Charlton ©, Jakab, Allen, Lavery, Moan, Patton, Davison, Annang-Colquhoun, Guy. Subs: Johnson, Lawrence, Charmey, Richards, Ene.
Whitley Bay: Lister, Irons, Day, Turnbull, Hutchinson, Lowery ©, Gilchrist, Richardson, Shanks, Neary, Porriitt. Subs: Wilds, Orrell, Taylor, Morien.
A pleasant sunny day greeted the players as they entered the pitch. Whitley Bay kicked off attacking the cemetery end of the ground.
The opening minutes of the game saw both teams feeling their way into the game slow build up play and both defences coping well with any attacking threat.
In the 12th minute a good through ball from Patton sent Annang-Colquhoun though on goal a lunging tackle from behind by Lowery sent the RCA forward to the ground with the RCA players appealing for a penalty the referee waved play on with the ball running through to Lister.
The visitors opened up a little after this with Gilchrist forcing a corner off Lavery. The winger took the corner which flew through a number of players in the box before finally going out for a goal kick.
Two minutes later and Porritt made a good run on the left before being brought down by Jakab. The free kick was taken by Gilchrist took the kick but sent it his over the bar.
Whitley Bay took the lead in the 20th minute when a quickly taken free kick caught the RCA defence flatfooted and the ball was played out to Irons on the right and he played a delightful cross into the box onto the head of Shanks who made no mistake from inside the six yard area.
RCA should have been awarded a penalty five minutes later when Charlton played a good ball into the box, a goalmouth scramble saw the ball cleared to Patton inside the area and he was caught from behind in the action of shooting, the assistant immediately flagged, but the referee waved play on and the ball was cleared for a throw in.
The game took some time to settle after this and the next real chance fell to Neary when he picked up a long ball forward from Lowery and smashed a low shot which hit Marrs' knee and rebounded into his arms.
Both teams were struggling to get any real passing moves going as they cancelled each other out in midfield and there was little if any real threat to either goal. A Davison header went wide of the target and Porritt had a shot blocked by Lavery.
Half time 1-0 to the visitors, but two massive penalty shouts turned down had they have gone the other way the score line could have been so different.
The second half began with RCA pushing forward, Moan played a good ball out to Morris in the opening minute of the half and the wingers cross into the box just needed a touch for RCA to score but the ball drifted harmlessly wide.
Within minutes they were back on the attack with Guy on the edge of the box, Lowery brought him down and Charlton’s free kick into the box was met by Davison, but his header went inches wide of the upright.
Morris was seeing a lot of the ball in the opening minutes of the half and his next contribution saw him float a cross to the far post for Davison but the RCA striker could only direct his header into the arms of Lister.
How RCA didn’t equalise in the 55th minute is beyond me. Good build up play on the right between Guy and Allen split the Bay defence and the low cross from Allen into the box was met at the near post by Patton, who, with the goal at his mercy, somehow managed to miss the target from two yards out.
Within a minute the home team almost got a fluke of a goal when a poor Bay clearance deflected off Davison and went just wide of the goal with the keeper stranded.
The visitors were struggling to get the ball out of their own half during this period of intense RCA pressure.
On the hour mark Guy picked up a loose ball and attacked the Bay defence before squaring the ball to Annang-Colquhoun but his shot was blocked by Turnbull.
Both sides made a number of substitutions which interrupted the flow of the game and it became very disjointed.
The disruption in play seemed to favour the visitors as they were awarded their first corner of the second half; the ball was met at the back post by the unmarked Lowery who headed the ball back into the six yard area where Shanks was first to reacted smashing the ball into the net to make it 2-0.
RCA responded with a great chance of their own, a quick break down the right by Charlton and his cross was met by Johnson but his deft flick was narrowly wide of the mark.
The game was flowing again and when a poor RCA clearance fell to Shanks there was only one thing on his mind as he thundered a low shot which hit the inside of the post and rebounded to safety.
A few minutes later and a break up the left wing by Charlton was spotted by Lavery who played the ball into space in front of the wing-back, his cross into the box with the resulting clash of heads leaving two players down injured, Day seemed to come off worse and after five minutes of treatment was substituted.
The additional time added by the referee did not produce any further incidents and the game ended in a victory for Whitley Bay who moved into second place in the league.
A much better overall performance from RCA who, with a little bit of luck, which seems to have deserted us at the moment, could easily have gotten something from this game.
It appeared that we switched off at vital moments in the game and allowed Whitley Bay to exploit those lapses in concentration.
The main positive from the game today was the number of chances we created. If we continue to make chances eventually we will start scoring goals and results will follow.