Marske United 1 Sunderland RCA 2

Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup

Wednesday, 7 November 2007

RCA travelled down to Marske United for the second round of the Ernest Armstrong Trophy, hoping to repeat the victory secured over Marske at home in the league last month. Manager Neil Hixon shuffled his pack with Matt Hyson returning for Wayne Henderson in defence, Glen McCartney replacing Gary Anderson at right back, Taz Raine coming in for Ash Davis at left back, with Ash pushed forward to left wing to replace the unavailable Jif Dickinson. In attack Lee Bell played in the hole behind debutant Craig Lines. With Gary Shields, Scott Richards and the returning Jon Butler joining Wayne and Gary Anderson, the bench looked strong if needed.

The game started with Marske enjoying a lot of possession without ever looking comfortable. the new partnership of Bell and Lines looked dangerous up front while Lee Owens begin to torture the Marske backline on the break, as he would continue to do all night. By half time the pressure was 60/40 in favour of Marske while the chances were all ours although the scoreline was still 0-0. Goodwin and Hyson had been booked, Matty not helped by the disgraceful intervention of the Marske manager. In a rare moment of danger from the home side Craig Shields was lucky to escape unharmed from a very late challenge.

Within a minute or two of the restart Lee Owens set off on another long run into the Marske defence, shot from the edge of the box, and saw the hapless Marske custodian fumble the ball under his body and into the net. A soft goal, but no more than our enterprising attacking play, particularly from Owens, had deserved. Marske were rattled by this, and the game should have been out of sight in the next 20 minutes as we wasted several excellent chances.

The balance of play turned to Marske as Paul Moss went off injured, and Marske finally made the breakthrough to equalise after 80 minutes. However, it had been good to see Jon Butler make his return on 70 minutes and, within a minute of Marske scoring he made the winner with a strong run to the line and excellent cutback across the keeper which Ash Davis bundled into the net.

That was that, job well done, a quarter final to look forward to, and onto Whickham on Saturday.