Sunderland RCA 2 Ryton 4

Northern League

Saturday, 16 December 2006

RCA forward Jon Butler calmly slots the ball past the Ryton keeper to open the scoring after
11 minutes

In an open, entertaining and hard fought match, Sunderland RCA went down 2 - 4 to a strong and well-organised Ryton side, ending their run of two wins.

Kicking down the Meadow Park slope, RCA were swiftly on the attack with Jon Butler chasing a good ball into the Ryton penalty area after five minutes. Ryton, through. were creating their own chances and fired over at the cemetery end.

On 11 minutes Jon Butler opened the scoring for RCA, beating a defender and then the goalkeeper to slot home. The remainder of the first half was incident packed. First, on 20 minutes, keeper Niki Lawson needed a long period of injury treatment after a nasty collision with an RCA defender. On 31 minutes, Jon Butler was one-one-one with the Ryton keeper, but his shot hit the post. On 37 minutes, Buts was through again, pushing the ball past a defender and beating him for pace, before hitting a good shot. On 39 minutes, Dean Fox hit a shot on target that was well saved. Then, from an RCA corner that was only half cleared, Job Butler had another, difficult, chance on goal.

RCA were soon to rue those missed chances, because on 41 minutes, Ryton equalised with Ross Atkinson firing home from close range, the defence having failed to clear from a corner. On 45 minutes Butler was in action again, chasing a ball through, but it broke badly for him and the keeper collected.

In the second half Ryton nearly scored from the kick off and gained corners to put RCA under pressure. Then came two killer goals in two minutes, on 62 and 64 minutes, from Ryton's Ludlow and Bulford.

Captain Paul Moss pulled a goal back on 68 minutes, following a Karl Jarvis cross, after his corner was only cleared back to him. It looked as through RCA could still get something out of this game, but as the match went on Ryton were showing strongly.

On 75 minutes, manager Steve Smith made a double-substitution bring on Gareth Hill and new signing Gary Anderson for Dean Fox and Adam Monkouse. On 82 minutes, Hill's shot beat the keeper, but also, narrowly the far post.

Substitute Gareth Hill breaks through in the Ryton penalty area

On 85 minutes, Bulford scored his second and Ryton's fourth goal, following a poor clearance.