Wednesday, 9 March 2011
STL Northern League Division 1
Belle Vue Park home of Consett was engulfed in unfavourable football conditions for the visit of Sunderland RCA. High winds and heavy rain provided a muddy but playable pitch on a cold evening in County Durham. In an unfamiliar RCA system Joe Walton partnered Paul Taylor up front with a three man central midfield of Wayne Henderson, Marc Ellison and Michael Dalton and the introduction of Leon Carling to the regular RCA back line which gave licence to full backs Steve Jones and Paul Talbot to get forward.
The opening stages of the match showed some promise for RCA with two high balls over the top of the Consett back four catching in the wind and causing problems. Paul Taylor was able to get in behind on both occasions latching onto the first ball, but being well marshalled by the Consett defence and unable to get a strike away. On the second ball over the top Taylor looked to have got away from his marker and went down in the box under contact, that you feel anywhere else on the pitch would have resulted in an infringement, only for the referee to wave away the RCA protests.
Consett looked comfortable in possession and were winning every first and second ball. The three man RCA midfield of Henderson, Ellison and Dalton seemed unable to exert any commanding influence on the game resulting in some good team moves by Consett with Gavin Barton and Mark Eccles able to test Gary Hoggeth in the RCA goal.
When RCA were in possession the centre of the park looked congested and with no outlets on the flanks and the midfield was struggling to keep hold of the ball. In comparison Consett were using the whole of the pitch to great effect and just after the half hour mark a confident interchange of passes allowed Eccles to open the scoring.
RCA were beginning to look nervous and were quickly two goals behind. A couple of failed challenges by the RCA back line saw the referee immediately point to the spot and Jamie Poole stepped up to convert the penalty.
With Consett having the majority of the play RCA stayed resolute to maintain the score until half time. Harrison Davies was introduced after the interval with the intention of providing more of an attacking threat to the Consett back line. With a bit more attacking impetus RCA pushed men forward and a good run by Jones down the right was met with a cynical foul and an RCA freekick. Ellison provided the delivery, which should have been a simple take for Consett goalkeeper Barry Poskett, but Poskett spilled his catch dropping the ball perfectly for Walton to score in the untended goal. However, Walton’s stabbed strike was stepped across by Taylor who inadvertently deflected the ball away from goal.
Consett’s third goal came in fortuitous circumstances. Poole found himself free down the left flank and with men over at the back post he played in a deep cross that looked to be too near Hoggeth. Hoggeth looked to have taken the correct position to make the catch, but the high ball got caught in the strong wind and the small change of direction left Hoggeth back peddling in vain as the cross found the top corner.
With Consett now comfortable RCA finally produced a passing move that opened up the Consett defence. Some quick one touch football found Davies on the edge of the box and he played a perfectly weighted ball into the overlapping run of Jones but, unmarked, the full back fired his shot over.
Consett played out the remainder of the game with the majority of possession and made secure of the victory without having to put RCA to the sword. RCA will be disappointed with their performance where they were second to a better side in every area of the park.
