Saturday, 6 November 2010

STL Northern League Division 1

Sunderland RCA travelled to current Northern League champions Spennymoor Town with the intent of carving out a result that would depose the present leader from the top of the table. RCA manager Neil Hixon went into the game with a five man midfield designed to stifle Spennymoor's attacking play and looked to incisively build up attacks with Marc Ellison holding and Scott Richards and Micky Coghlan supporting lone striker Richie Logan.

The RCA managements astute tactics paid dividends from the off. The added man in the centre of the park enabled RCA to work the ball intelligently up field and with five minutes gone their endeavours earned a corner. Harrison Davies went over to send in a left footed inswinging which Joe Walton, getting in front of his marker, met at the near post to give RCA an early lead.

Spennymoor hadn’t got going and RCA looked to capitalise on the home sides indifferent start. When Davies was brought down on the left edge of the box Coghlan placed the ball with only one intention. He whipped the freekick over the wall with pace and dip. With the ball sneaking into the bottom corner only an excellent hand from Spennymoor goalkeeper Craig Turns was able to turn the ball away for a corner.

Coghlan nearly doubled RCA’s lead in spectacular fashion on the quarter hour mark. After some confident passing across the midfield Walton earned some yards down the right flank after some tenacious industry and, despite close attention from Chris Mason, he hooked the ball into the path of Coghlan around 20 yards from goal. The ball bounced invitingly for the midfielder who hit a sweet dipping effort that grazed the top of the Spennymoor bar.

Despite looking out of sorts in a attacking sense Spennymoor where always capable of carving an opportunity. That is exactly what happened when Michael Laws played a precise ball between defender and goalkeeper that was not dealt with by RCA and Michael Rae was left with a simple tap in from two yards. The striker, however, inexplicably failed to make contact with the ball and the away side were let off the hook with reiterated warnings reverberating from the RCA bench.

Leon Ryan had been excellent in the centre of Spennymoor’s defence adding credence to his reputation as the best defender in the league. Ryan had set up an interesting battle with the hard working Logan dealing with RCA’s attacks with an efficiency that kept the frontman’s chance in front of goal down to a minimum. Just before half time Logan’s diligence paid off but the striker was unable to convert his deserved opportunity.

The second half provided the inevitable Spennymoor attacking onslaught as the home side went looking for the equaliser. However, some resolute defending from RCA restricted Spennymoor to speculative efforts on goal.

It would be a moment of quality that would eventually break down the RCA defence. Substitute Steven Richardson worked the ball with Alex Francis to Craig Ruddy and the midfielder's clipped ball fell between defence and goalkeeper for Laws to nod home.

Spennymoor began to assert themselves on RCA with Anthony Peacock and Francis running at the RCA backline. The home side should have taken the lead when Francis fed a clever ball through the RCA defence for the run of Rae but RCA keeper Gary Hoggeth was off his line quickly to make an excellent save.

As Spennymoor continued to pressure RCA the defensive partnership of Carl Beasley and James Oates came to the fore as the duo halted Spennymoor’s attacks with some crucial defensive challenges in and around the area. Beasley would make his biggest impact of the game at his former club with around 15 minutes remaining. Steven Harrison provided the cross for Peacock to hit a first time volley that was goalbound. However, Beasley positioning was intuitive and, with Hoggeth beaten, the defender hacked the ball away off the line.

Despite Spennymoor’s dominance it was RCA who had the best chance to win the match with five minutes remaining. Walton’s cross from the right flank was easy for Turns to deal with but the Spennymoor kepper fumbled the ball then collided with his own defender sending them both to the ground. Richard’s was on hand to turn the ball home but, with close attention from a second defender, he somehow could not get his foot around the ball to send it goalwards and it was eventually squirmed away and cleared.

RCA settled for an excellent point that keeps their encouraging form going and knocked Spennymoor Town off the summit of the Northern League First Division.

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Durham County Challenge Cup Second Round

On a cold night at Meadow Park Sunderland RCA entertained Chester-le-Street in the Second Round of the Durham County Challenge Cup. RCA manager Neil Hixon made a number of changes from the side that drew with Spennymoor Town at the weekend with David Duke, Joe Fairish and Gavin Parkin coming into midfield and John Ryan and Martin Smith returning up front.

It was the cold perhaps that produced the uneventful first half that saw both sides evenly matched and goalmouth action held to a minimum. Chester-le-Street did their best to force an opening but their attacking play was easily dealt with by the RCA defence and their frontline was resigned to speculative efforts that rarely looked like troubling Gary Hoggeth in the RCA goal.

The best chance of the first half fell to RCA. Some well-worked possession play down the right flank resulted in Steve Jones pushing forward. His perfect ball, deep to the back post, allowed Ryan to pull off his defender with a simple piece of movement. Six yards out Ryan rose to meet the cross but with the goal at his mercy he headed over.

The second half produced a far more eventful contest. Chester-le-Street were attacking with intent and causing some dangerous moments in and around the RCA penalty area that required some last ditch defending by Carl Beasley and James Oates.

Just before the hour mark RCA brought on Joe Walton for Micky Coghlan with Fairish switching infield. Walton had begun to make an impact. His strong and direct running was committing Chester-le-Street defenders and opening up spaces along the backline. RCA were able to exploit the gaps in the Chester-le-Street defence when Parkin was sent through on goal. One-on-one with the keeper the chance presented itself invitingly for Parkin to open up his body and pick his spot with his right foot. However, he let the ball run across his body giving Kyle Barlow the chance to close the angle and Parkin’s left footed effort went agonisingly wide.

From the resulting goalkick Chester-le-Street were able to slip Gary Shields through on goal and the ex-RCA man made no mistake sliding the ball underneath Hoggeth to give Chester-le-Street the lead.

The goal seemed to wake RCA, and, with the introduction of Chris Smith in the centre of midfield for Fairish, RCA began to pass the ball better looking with every opportunity to feed Walton on the right hand side.

The warning signs were there for Chester-le-Street when on two occasions Walton beat his man to get to the byline only for Barlow first to pull off an excellent save from Martin Smith and then to be helped out by his defence who did just enough to upset Parkin when he looked likely to score. But with 15 minutes remaining a cross from the right found Martin Smith at the back post who hung well in the air to head in off the post despite the gallant efforts from Barlow.

With credit to Chester-le-Street, the set back did not make their heads drop and they continued to look potent in attack. With ten minutes remaining a string of corners led to some desperate and heroic defending in the RCA box and claims for a penalty despite the suggested handball being two yard outside the box.

With five minutes remaining RCA produced a goal fit to win any football match. The excellent Walton tore down the right and dropped a ball in the centre of the goal for Ryan to volley clinically home and set up a Quarter Final tie with Gateshead.

Saturday, 13 November 2010

STL Northern League Division 1

Click here for a slideshow of photos from the match.

Click here to view match photos from guest photographer Geoff Watson.

RCA included new signing Lee Owens in the squad for the visit of Penrith, who on their travels this season have won six matches. The first half proved to be a tight affair with Penrith probably just shading it and when RCA missed a penalty in the dying minutes of the half it looked like it might be Penrith's day again.

The transformation in the RCA team for the second half was unbelievable and the final score could have been much more than 3-0.

RCA continued their impressive run with a well earned win against a Penrith team who have won six times on their travels this season.

It was Penrith who set the early pace and Beasley had to be on hand to clear the danger when Robinson threatened in the eigth minute to break into the box. Beasley's clearance found Martin Smith who crossed for Logan, but the forward was denied a shooting opportunity by Mark Jones.

Penrith should have taken the lead when Earl switched the ball to the left wing for Allinson who crossed into the box, but Robertson's effort went well over the bar.

A spell of prssure from RCA saw Logan win a corner and when the cross came into the box Beasley was unlucky to see his shot cleared, however it only went as far as Walton who fired the ball to the far post for Oates, but he could not direct his header on target. Both defences were on top and goal chances were rare.

In the 43rd minute RCA were awarded penalty when Davies was brought down in the box. With the Penrith players protesting in vain to the referee the kick was delayed for a number of minutes and unfortunately Davies' weak kick was easily saved by James Holland, his third penalty save this season.

RCA came out for the second half in very determined mood and Walton started to impress on the right beating Penrith captain Mark Jones on a number of occasions, only to see good crosses into the box wasted by poor finishing.

A speculative effort from Wilson wide on the left wing had Hoggeth at full stretch and he was relieved to see the ball strike the post and fall to the feet of Oates who cleared to Walton. He jinked past Jones once more and although his cross was well defended the ball fell to Coghlan 25 yards out and he fired a low shot into the bottom corner of the net giving Holland no chance.

RCA were in no mood to relinquish this hard fought lead and althogh Penrith responded by firing high balls into the box the defending of the whole back four, but Oates in particular, was immense and they never looked like conceding.

In the 82nd minute substitute and new signing Owens charged down a clearance from Paul and then as the ball ran towards Thornton he closed him down, winning the ball he then skipped past Brown before delivering a delightful cross to the far post where Walton was on hand to volley home.

Inspired by these two goals RCA pushed forward again and again and were rewarded in the 89th minute when, receiving a terrific pass from Coghlan on the right, Walton waltzed past the Penrith defence before squaring the ball to Ryan, who was left with the simplest of tap ins from five yards out.

All in all a very good second half performance which sees us rise to the relative safety of 12th in the league.

Tuesday, 16 November 2010

League Cup Second Round

Sunderland RCA's trip to Birtley Town for the Second Round of the League Cup provided an entertaining night's worth of football for the supporters, but, perhaps not for either manager.

RCA came into the fixture with a squad depleated due to injury, suspension and work commitment. Coming into the side from Saturday’s victory against Penrith was Dave Anderson who started at centre half, Joe Fairish and David Duke returned to midfield with Lee Owens making his first start since returning to the club and Chris Smith replacing Joe Walton, who picked up an injury in the pre-match warm-up.

RCA took a while to settle into the match. The flowing passing game that had been a feature of their recent good results in the league was breaking down against a hard working Birtley side in the centre of the park. Instead, much of the RCA’s possession play was drawn back towards their own goal.

Birtley looked to provide most of the attacking impetus in the first half. They tested the RCA defence with a number of balls over the top that repeatedly found their front line being flagged offside. But, you sensed that eventually the Birtley attack would time a run right.

Birtley’s best chance of the first half came around the half hour mark. Nathan Hepurker found himself with space in the RCA box, but despite being unchallenged, he was only able to shoot over.

RCA’s best moment came when Martin Smith, bending his run to beat the offside trap, ran through on the end of a lifted ball over the Birtley defence. Smith’s first touch was good, setting himself up for an attempt on goal, but Mark Dawson in the Birtley goal came out to close the angle down and Smith’s low effort was saved by the keepers feet.

Birtley broke the deadlock just before half time. A ball over the top exposed the RCA defence that had pushed up field and the runner, finally beating the offside trap, shot across goal. Gary Hoggeth made the save pushing the ball back into the danger area for Andrew McIntosh to fire into the roof of the net giving the scampering Hoggeth and RCA defence no chance.

Birtley again looked to press after the interval and were immediately rewarded. Herpurker was put through on goal and his shot, expertly tucked away in the corner, gave Hoggeth little chance.

Birtley’s second seemed to wake RCA who began attacking with a lot more enterprise. Pushing forward more men into attack RCA began finding gaps in the Birtley defence and a chance for Richie Logan resulted in a RCA corner. Martin Smith swung the corner in towards substitute James Oates at the near post. His flick onto the back post left Dawson stranded. Duke came in behind the defender with the simple task of heading home from three yards, but, he was somehow unable to make the right connection and headed wide.

RCA pulled their first goal back when, with some good feet, Logan passed the first defender and a simple exchange of passes put him through to shoot straight at Dawson. The Birtley keeper was unable to push the ball to safety and Martin Smith jinked passed the player held in attention and placed the ball in the back of the net.

RCA continued to create chances searching for an equalising goal. Carl Beasley must have thought he had levelled things when a deep searching cross from the left hung invitingly at the back post. Beasley rose and headed across goal beating Dawson but the ball came back off the Birtley post.

Birtley were looking dangerous on the counter attack and with RCA committing more men forward they were able to expose the RCA backline but were unable to convert any of the chances.

RCA levelled things with about ten minutes remaining when an attack from the left gave Smith a shooting opportunity. His effort was parried by Dawson, the hard working Birtley goalkeeper, but Duke was quick to follow up and he fired the ball into the empty net.

This cued a frantic end to the game with both sides looking for a winner. RCA were looking the more likely exerting pressure on the Birtley defence. The pressure reaped benefits with almost immediate effect. Beasley, who was in affect playing as a third striker, pulled off a defender in an almost carbon copy of his effort which hit the upright and headed back across goal giving RCA the lead for the first time in the match.

RCA made it 4-2 minutes later with a well worked move. Passing around the Birtley defence down the left flank the ball was pulled back to the edge of the box where Duke, timing his run perfectly, fired high past Dawson in the Birtley goal.

From kick off Birtley orchestrated an attack and with pace and precision they found their way easily through the RCA defence and substitute Martin Roper finished comfortably passed Hoggeth.

For the final moments of the match RCA focused on holding their lead. Birtley tried to create a final chance to take the game to extra time but RCA were able to hold out and progress to the next round, which, on the evidence of their first half performance, they will perhaps consider themselves lucky to do so.