Northern League

Saturday, 2 December 2006

This was an excellent battling win for RCA in the Arngrove Northern League on Saturday, against a strong Crook side. Manager Steve Smith had his strongest squad for a while available and the lads gave a strong performance.

Jon Butler races through to score RCA's first goal

Two Jon Butler goals had RCA two up with half an hour to play but, as always fans weren't allowed to relax as Crook quickly got it back to 2-1. RCA held their nerve though and saw out the last half hour with few alarms.

Jon Butler beats the keeper to the ball to score RCA's second goal

Two wins out of the last four games puts a better complexion on the league table but everyone knows the same level of results will have to be maintained right through to May.

Northern League

Saturday, 9 December 2006

After manager Steve Smith had named the first unchanged side in his 18 months with the club, it looked like another one of those days for RCA when an unfortunate defensive slip presented Guisborough Town with the lead inside the first two minutes on Saturday. RCA battled back well though and a superb Jon Butler lob leveled matters inside 15 minutes.

RCA had the best of the play in the remainder of the half, only to fall behind again to a breakaway goal in the fourth minute of first half injury time.

After the interval RCA pressed hard and Jon Butler got his second after 50 minutes.

More pressure through the half led to a Si Andrews goal after 75 minutes as the keeper fumbled his header.

The first league away win and first double of the season was sealed with an Anth Laidler penalty late in added time. Consecutive wins for the first time this season.

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.

Northern League

Tuesday, 26 December 2006

A great result for RCA as a battling performance saw us over turn league leaders South Shields at home on Boxing day morning.

Shields pushed us hard all game, but RCA are showing real grit and determination now and we weathered the storm before a Dean Fox cracker in the 44th minute gave us the half time lead.

It was the same story in the second half. Shields had most of the play, but RCA defended stoutly, with teenage goalkeeper Nick Lawson outstanding, before a cool finish on the break from Danny Haley settled the points.

Anth Laidler was sent off for two bookings with 25 minutes to go, so it was an even more creditable result, which puts RCA back in touch with the league and looking forward to 2007 with renewed optimism.