Thornaby 2 Sunderland RCA 2

skilltraining Northern League

21 February 2009

Not a disaster at Thornaby as RCA battled well with a swirling wind and rough pitch to finish level with the bottom club. RCA will feel we should have won the game, and had plenty of chances in the second half to do so, but Thornaby worked hard, were well marshalled at the back by ex-Boro stalwart Nicky Mohan and will feel grateful for their point, not that it does them much good. Hicker made a couple of changes at the back with Andy Reay returning after suspension and Paul Wardle getting the nod to partner him. The game kicked off with Thornaby having the advantage of the breeze and for half an hour they made good use of it and were the better side. RCA were struggling to get going with passes going astray and the front two of Davison and Jennings not being able to hold it up. It was no great surprise therefore when Thornaby took the lead after 27 minutes with a simple enough strike from Morton.

The goal woke RCA up and we pressed from then to the break. Two or three decent chances were spurned before right on the stroke of half time Andy Jennings notched after good work by Davison and Stewart.

1-1 at HT.

The second half started in completely different mode with RCA totally on top. Jennings had a goal harshly disallowed for offside on 50 minutes, but the pressure was continuous and finally Adam McGuinness struck home from a narrow angle after 59 minutes. It looked like game over as we continued to push forward. Five minutes later however, during a rare Thornaby attack, Andy Reay was harshly adjudged to have pushed former RCA player Dean Fox in the box, and Foxy made no mistake from the spot: 2-2 with 25 minutes to go, certain to be more goals?

There should have been, as virtually every RCA midfielder and striker had chances to score. AJ hit the bar, Sparky headed over when he should have scored and in one ten second spell the keeper made two good saves before the ball went narrowly wide, and AJ had another disallowed for offside. But it was not to be and we have to settle for a point. Unbeaten in five though and need to keep going. A setback, but not the end of the world.