Tuesday, 20 August 2013
EBAC Northern League Division 1
Goalscorers: Durham: Ward, Harrison, Fenwick SRCA: No scorers.
After the heroics of Saturday in the FA Cup against Spennymoor it was back to league action away to Durham City FC and down to earth with a bump. A below par performance saw RCA well beaten by a well organised Durham team who penetrated our defence at will, while maintaining a solid defence of their own. It could have been so different if RCA had taken advantage of a very bright start but they rarely test the Durham third choice keeper Rhys Jobling.
RCA started well and only some stirling defensive work by Madden stopped Shields excellent cross reaching Winter five yards out in front of an open goal.
Home-Jackson carved out the next opening, feeding the ball to Thompson who skipped past the challenge of Harrison before crossing to Barton but the RCA striker, under pressure from Oates, headed straight at Jobling.
After being under pressure for the opening 15 minutes Durham hit back when Morris raced down the right and crossed to Craig Hindmarch who was denied by a superb one-handed save by Jameson.
RCA responded with a slick move, Shields crossing to the far post where Winter collected before laying the ball into the path of Barton who struck a powerful shot wide of the target.
In the 22nd minute Durham took the lead when Dixon burst forward before crossing into the box where Scott looked to step over the ball and it fell to Ward who tapped in from six yards out.
RCA where forced back on the defensive and a long range effort from Dixon went narrowly past the far post.
Durham took control of the game in the midfield with Hotchkiss picking up any loose ball and moving the ball forward quickly.
On the half hour mark Ward picked up a through ball from Morris, dribble past two players before firing weakly into the arms of Jameson.
RCA were still trying to mount attacks and their approach work could not be faulted, it was just the final ball into the box which eluded them.
As the half wore on it was Durham who were creating the chances, in particular Morris who looked to attack at pace everytime he got the ball and in the final minute of the first half he had two great efforts, one spectacularly saved by Jameson and the other going narrowly wide.
The second half was barely three minutes old when Durham had the opportunity to double their advantage when they were awarded a penalty when Morris was adjudged to have been tripped. Hotchkiss took the penalty, but Jameson was equal to the shot and made a terrific save, turning the ball round the post for a corner. Oates was close to scoring from the corner with a well timed header which went over the bar.
RCA were awarded a free kick 25 yards out which McGuinness took, firing his first effort into the wall he picked up the rebound and sent in a lovely cross which found Barton who turned quickly but fired over the bar.
As the game ebbed and flowed it was obvious that the next goal would seal the match and so it was that Durham's Harrison produced a wonderful goal in the 69th minute. Picking the ball up on the half way line he ran, unchallenged to the edge of the 18 yard area before drilling a low shot into the bottom corner of the net.
RCA's match was well and truely over four minutes later when a Morris cross was met by Fenwick and his glancing header rocketed into the back of the net.
In the closing stages RCA tried to gain something from the game with efforts from Brown and Thompson both going wide without troubling Jobling.
RCA need to regroup after this defeat, but must take heart from the fact that they have performed really well in three out of their four games this season. On the night Durham were just that little bit better in front of goal and also had an impressive 20 or so minutes by Kyle Fryatt, who looks quite a handful.