Sunderland RCA 1 Esh Winning 1

Arngrove Northern League Division 2

Saturday, 16 February 2008

The run comes to an end! After a fantastic eight consecutive wins, a hard working and skillful Esh Winning team held RCA to a 1-1 draw in Saturday's encounter before a decent and appreciative crowd of around 100. Let's hope we can get such gates from now until the end of the season.

A draw was no more than Esh deserved for a very tidy and solid display, which saw them have the majority of possession, although on another day RCA would have taken more advantage of the chances created, and stolen the spoils.

The game started in bright but cold conditions, with Esh starting as they intended to go on, with good possession and swift passing, without posing too many problems for Jon Minniss in the RCA goal. Play was scrappy until Esh took the lead in the 17th minute with a soft penalty awarded for a clumsy foul in the box.

On 22 minutes Gary Shields should probably have equalised when a good pass from Andy Jennings gave him a clear shooting opportunity, but he shot straight at the keeper, who saved comfortably. The leveler came however in the 30th minute when a good Lee Owens run and excellent pass saw Gary Shields cross and Adam McGuinness slide home from a few yards out.

Between this and the break chances were few, although Lee Owens made a good opening with one of his trademark runs, and Jon Minniss had to save smartly from an Esh effort. The second half continued in the same vein, with good Esh possession being matched by RCA with breaks from deep. The game came alive in the last quarter as both keepers starred, showing great anticipation and good hands to make several saves as the game opened out. It could have been settled either way as Esh created chances while Lee Owens made a number of excellent runs only lacking the final ball, but the keepers had the last word. Honours even, still 10 games unbeaten, and into a real testing part of the season, where our destiny for next season will be decided, I can't wait!