Hebburn Town 0 Sunderland RCA 1

RCA forward Conor Winter fights for the ball in the first half of the match.

Tuesday, 27 August 2013

EBAC Northern League Division 1

Please click here for some more match photos.

Once again this season RCA showed their resilience and character, down to 10 men in the 42nd minute when captain Adam McGuinness was harshly dismissed, they battled for everything in the second half, scored a goal and defended it superbly.

With central defenders Clough and Summers on holiday (in the football season not heard of in my day) McGuinness moved to cover and Lee was drafted in at left back. Fryatt was preferred to Shields as a replacement for the suspended Brown.

Hebburn showed their intention to attack from the off and could have been 1-0 up inside a minute. Daniel Smith bursting forward into space, with RCA defenders backing off, he slipped the ball to Roper whose initial shot was blocked by Wardle, his follow up shot deflected off one of his own players and went for a goal kick.

RCA replied with a good move of their own, Jury sent in a cross from the right which Barton headed down to Winter, his volley was cleared by Downey but fell to Barton on the edge of the box but his curling shot went just over the bar.

From the goal kick the ball was headed by Wardle into the path of Edwards and he shot instictively from 35 yards out ,but Hunter was alert to the danger and saved easily.

The approach work by both teams was looking good but everything was falling apart in the final third of the pitch; this was due in no small part to some excellent defending by both teams.

Jameson was called into action for the first time when the ball was lost in midfield and Roper was sent clear of the RCA backline. He fired in a thunderbolt of a shot, but Jameson pulled off a great save.

Hebburn were looking to capitalise on this and within a minute McMahan had set Roper up again but this time the striker could only poke the ball straght at Jameson.

On the half hour mark Fryatt played in Home-Jackson but he was fouled on the edge of the box, Edwards took the kick and Wardle got his head to the ball but couldn't steer it goalwards.

Within the space of five minutes RCA had three corners and on each occassion the ball was played in and was cleared towards the far side of the pitch with no RCA player within 20 metres of the ball.

RCA almost snatched the lead in the 40th minute when some excellent interplay between Thompson and Edwards saw the latter burst into the box before firing into the side netting.

RCA were reduced to 10 men in the 42nd minute when a long ball from Wallace fell between McGuinness and Roper. The referee adjudged that McGuinness fouled the Hebburn forward during the clash which followed. Whether it was a red card is debateable as it didn't look like he had denied a clear goalscoring opportunity. Nevertherless a red card was shown.

Robinson took the resulting freekick and blasted it well wide of the far post.

Fryatt was sacrificed in order to bring in a defender and was replaced by Bell who was making his RCA debut.

Hebburn started the second half looking to capitalise on their player advantage and were quickly on the attack, once again though Roper was guilty of wasting a good position by firing over the bar.

Having withstood the early second half bombardment, RCA went on the attack and when Home-Jackson was fouled 25 yards out Edwards fired in the freekick, it rebounded off RCA substitute Shields and fell to Lee who lobbed the ball just wide of the upright.

Within a minute, a long clearance from Downey was missed by Wardle and Robinson picked up the loose ball and advanced into the penalty area, just as he was about to pull the trigger Bell produced a last ditch tackle to clear the ball for a corner.

The corner was cleared by Wardle and the ball was fed to Goss who slipped past the full back before crossing to the near post where Thompson fired against the post, the rebound hit his knee and went into the net past the helpless Hunter.

Hebburn then threw everything including the proverbial kitchen sink at RCA but even when they beat Jameson there was someone on hand to clear off the line, Jury on one occassion from a shot by McMahan and Lee on another from a header by Robinson.

RCA should have sealed the three points in the 80th minute when Goss, bearing down on goal, chose to shoot wide rather than play the ball to Home-Jackson who was in a much better position with an open goal in front of him.

Hebburn huffed and puffed for the last ten minutes of the game and put a lot of pressure on the RCA defence, but time and again they shot wide of the target and to be fair RCA players were throwing bodies at the ball in an effort to maintain a clean sheet which is what they did.

Another hard earned three points which lifts us to eighth in the league. Bedlington at home on Saturday will be another difficult game and with three players suspended and one at a wedding it will be another much changed team from that which performed such heroics tonight.