Tuesday, 06 September 2011
STL Northern League Division 1
A windswept Bedfored Terrace welcomed table toppers Sunderland RCA FC for this STL Northern League Division 1 match against Billingham Town FC, who have not had the best of starts to the season and suffered a crushing defeat on Saturday.
RCA brought in new signing Bryan Stewart for the injured Joe Walton and reverted to a more familiar 4-4-2 formation with Gary Shields occupying the opposite wing. Unfortunately for the spectators the wind was to play a pivotal role in the night's proceedings and in some ways spoilt a decent game of football.
RCA took advantage of the wind in the first half and were the first on the attack when a header from Jennings found strike partner Davison, however a well timed challenge by Cossavella broke up the attack.
In the sixth minute a cross from Stewart found Jennings inside the area, but his tame effart was easily saved by Briggs who then threw the ball out to Arthur who skipped past two defenders before firing straight at Hoggeth. This was to be the pattern of play attack and counter attack with the wind playing a major part.
RCA were finding it difficult to play with the gusting high wind and constantly over played the final pass. This gave confidence to Billingham who started to play some good passing football, keeping the ball under the wind. A testament to the way that the wind was effecting the play of RCA was that their first shot on target was in the 28th minute when McGuinness fired in a shot from 35 yards that had Briggs scrambling across his goal to punch round the post. A succession of corners followed and everyone was met by a Billingham defender.
Arthur created yet another chance in the 35 minute when his cross was brought down by Owens; with Hoggeth out of position he squared the ball to Roberts, but his effort flashed well wide of the post.
The game was tranformed in the last two minutes of the half when a ball from Close found Shields on the right and the winger cut the ball back to Davison who fired the ball into the roof of the net. Right on the stroke of half time the dangerous Arthur had a shot deflected for a corner and from it, Roberts rose to head home. The referee blew the whistle to end the half before play could resume.
RCA came out for the second half looking to improve and almost immediately were under pressure as Butterworth slipped the ball through to Owens and his shot flashed across the face of goal narrowly missing the post. A minute later and a shot from Arthur hit the inside of the post and rebounded into the grateful arms of Hoggeth. RCA rallied and a through ball from Cuthbertson found Jennings in acres of space, but before he coulf shoot Cossavella had put in an outstanding tackle and the chance disappeared.
As RCA came to terms with the wind they started to create problems for the Billingham defence. Davison was very unlucky with a header that hit the bar, but the goal that had been threatening came when a cross from Stewart was met by the head of Jennings and the ball looped over the helpless Briggs to settle in the net.
Once again the lead was short lived as from the kick off Hackett found Arthur with a lovely ball that caught the RCA defence flat footed and he progressed into the area before unleashing a terrific shot which gave Hoggeth no chance. From this point on RCA started to dominate and in a 10 minute spell should have put another couple of chances away, Jennings was guilty of rounding the keeper, but firing wide on two seperate occassions.
RCA were in total control of the midfield with Close and Cuthbertson playing outstandingly. Both players seemed to be all over the pitch, breaking up moves and passing to perfection.
RCA finally retook the lead after another spell of pressure when Davison was unceremoniously dumped to the ground inside the box when in the act of shooting. Debutant Stewart stepped up and cooly slotted the penalty home.
As the game wore on it was apparent the Billingham players were starting to tire and it was no surprise when Jennings completed the scoring with a goal after Davison had hit the bar.
In the final minutes RCA continued to create chances and Jennings was guilty of missing a great opportunity to complete his hat trick when instead of shooting he over hit a pass to Davison and the ball went out of play for a goal kick.
The second half display from RCA was head and shoulders above the first half and proved that they are top of the table on merit. Billingham Town kept battling away and on this performance can expect to start winning matches again soon.