Sunderland RCA 4 Darlington Spraire Lads 2

Durham County Under 18s Saturday Pre Season Tournament - Final

Saturday, 12 August 2006

Sunderland RCA Under 18s with their trophy from the Durham County Pre Season Tournament.
Manager Andrew Harrison, front row, first left.

The Under 18s give a magnificent performance on Saturday against a strong Darlington side.

SRCA certainly deserved their victory and in extra time proved comfortably winners.

The team spirit was excellent and we seem to have blended a crop of players from the three-strong Russell Foster Sunday teams (St Joseph's, Boldon Colts and Redby) into one well turned out unit. Much praise needs to go to Harry for the persistence in achieving this.

SRCA had two very early chances to go one up however a combination of good goal keeping and sometimes a little over play resulted in the tie remaining level for the first 15 minutes.

Darlington were always dangerous on the break with a couple of lively forwards being well supported by a combative midfield and it was against the run of play when they took the lead through a defensive splitting pass which was coolly dispatched by the Darlo number 9.

SRCA upped their game and Lloyd Conlin powered through the midfield and drove an unstoppable equaliser minutes after our going one down.

Half time score: 1 – 1

The game was evenly balanced and could go either way with Darlo having a strong wind at their backs. Rob Thompson and Anth Maggiore needed to be organised and strong to combat the long high balls into the SRCA penalty area and comfortably dealt with these on most occasions.

SRCA gave a sloppy free kick away on the edge of the box, some 15 minutes into the second half, and the resultant low cross evaded everyone and sneaked into the corner of the net. SRCA battled hard and it looked like the Darlo lads would hang on for victory when the energetic and physical ‘Leon’ headed a cross from Nicky Bell into the Darlo goal.

From then on it was one-way traffic and although the winning goals did not come until extra time there was only going to be one winner. Chris Curtis and man of the match Lewis Collinson sealed the first trophy of the season for the impressive Sunderland side. Lets hope there is more to follow. Well done Harry and the lads!