Sunderland RCA 2 Alnwick Town 5

Northern League

Tuesday, 15 August 2006

Our first ANL home match – and on a much better playing surface than we had for Saturday – and well done to Owen for the last minute line marking duties! While we had been on the end of an 8 – 0 score four days before, Alnwick had played out a 1 – 1 draw in their first match. Expectations of a turn around were high. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Alnwick went three up in the first half before Willie Crew pulled us a goal back. In the second half they piled on the misery with two more goals, with Willie getting his second and our consolation goal towards the end of the game. Alnwick played direct football and our defending lacked organisation and marking leaving too much space for the Alnwick attack to run into and to have time on the ball in and around our penalty area. This was a more frustrating match than at Ryton. At times Sunderland RCA played some really neat football – one move on the right during the first half was really terrific – but we lacked the directness of play shown by both Ryton and Alnwick, making life more difficult for our forwards. Plenty to work on as we head into a series of home games against some tough sides, but good play too, which should soon translate into results.