Saturday, 24 September 2011
FA Vase
Report Courtesy of Steve Brown - Sunday Sun Reporter
SOME have been that lucky these past 13 days, during which RCA – they’ll always be Ryhope to most – have met Bishops in three consecutive games; some have seen them all, and even the 0-0 was canny. And after the Northern League leaders won the first and drew the second, yesterday they retained bragging rights when matters turned to the Vase.
So while secretary Robert Jones might bemoan missing the trip he fancied to Northallerton, his consolation is a place in the next round, at Bedlington instead.
And while there may be few straws to clutch at for Auckland’s Amateur Cup kings this morning, any neutral must have left Meadow Park happy.
For as third instalments go, this was more Toy Story than the Godfather. In the shadow of the cemetery, there was life in this game from the off.
Inside 44 seconds Joseph Walton ought to have put the home side in front, but trickled a close-range angled effort at Simon Bishop. He soon made amends, however.
After Bryan Stewart nodded a point-blank header over the bar, Walton - 10 minutes in – latched onto a half-cleared ball by Chris Lawson off his own cross to crash a half-volley into the roof of the net from just inside the box.
Two minutes later, RCA doubled their lead – Mark Davison flicking a header from Adam McGuinness’s long throw past Bishop – and a cricket score looked plausible, the road to Wembley clear.
Bishops meant otherwise though, and on the half-hour James Oates – according to the liner – felled Andrew Johnson in the box and the visiting striker dispatched his resulting penalty in off the post.
Game on, one supposed.
But on 37 minutes Walton’s pass allowed Davison to rifle in a left-foot half-volley, and for the hosts all looked well once more.
That was reckoning without the manner in which Bishops burst out of their cassocks, however.
Darren Richardson shot, then headed, at Gary Hoggeth, and Johnson curled a 25-yard free-kick just wide before seeing another deflected over.
Yet just when they looked like closing the deficit, it widened. On 76 minutes Brian Close sent Stewart clear down the right and his squared centre was driven home by Davison. Hat-trick No 1.
Again, you presumed, done, dusted.
A minute later though, a long ball from deep saw Johnson chest past an advanced Hoggeth and guide the ball into an empty net from the edge of the box.
And two minutes later, Johnson was grounded – by the otherwise impeccable Carl Beasley this time – in the area, and made it 4-3 with the ensuing penalty. Hat-trick No 2, and he almost completed the mother of all comebacks on 86 minutes, Hoggeth palming his long-range effort onto the bar. It was not to be, of course. And deep into added time Davison went one better – with his fourth and RCA’s fifth – tapping in from Andrew Jennings’ cross.
Harsh on Johnson, fair on Ryhope.