Saturday, 18 September 2010
STL Northern League Division 1
Click here for a slideshow of photos from the match.
Another woeful defensive display led to major mistakes which were punished with great efficiency by a rampant Dunston attack. RCA have to learn that mistakes at this level cost you dearly.
A bright start by both teams saw early chances go begging firstly Armstrong had a header well saved by Hoggeth and in the next attack at the other end Walton played the ball in to Logan and with only the keeper to beat he scuffed his shot wide.
The RCA defence were finding it difficult to cope with Preen's movement and allowed him space to shoot after 15 minutes, luckily Hoggeth was on hand to save. However we did not learn from this and a minute later Preen pounced on a loose ball to fire home. Three minutes later and RCA defence was exposed again when a corner was passed into Preen and he laid the ball back for Young to fire home. It was all Dunston at this stage and Bulford could have made 3-0, but his shot took a deflection for a corner.
RCA seemed to have weathered the storm and a good move between Parkin and Gordon saw the latter shoot narrowly wide with Clark beaten. Then Walton crossed to the far post and with Logan bearing down on the ball Pickering headed the ball narrowly past the post. Logan almost got a goal back when he burst past two defenders to get to a pass from Coghlan, but his effort was well saved by Clark.
A free kick from Coghlan caused panic stations in the Dunston defence, but Smith was unable to capitalise on a mistake from Bell and the ball trickled wide of the post.
Dunston picked up the tempo again and McAndrew, who had terrorised the RCA defence up to this point, went past three defenders before powering in a shot which was brilliantly saved by Hoggeth.
With the half coming to a close a long ball out of defence by Dunston should have been easily dealt with by Gordon; unfortunately his intended back pass was picked up by McAndrew and he finished with aplomb.
There was no time even to kick off before the half time whistle went.
To their credit RCA came out in the second half to attack, but the Dunston defence were in no mood to give anything away, with Cattanach in outstanding form. In the 55th minute Logan, who had worked tirelessly up front for RCA had a shot well saved by Clark when he looked odds on to score. The keeper was then called upon to tip a shot from Davies over the bar. On the counter Galbraith forced a fine save from Hoggeth. Then in the 70th minute a cross into the box was met by Beasley who headed the ball into his own net.
Once again in the final minute of the match RCA hit the self-destruct button with Duke being caught in possession by Hepplewhite, who found McAndrew inside the 18 yard box and he made no mistake from 12 yards out.
