Sunday, 23 October 2011
Durham County Sunday Cup
RCA The Barnes exited the County Cup with a whimper when losing 2-1 to Suniside S.C., with a woeful performance, lacking in character and commitment.
Fielding a strong side, RCA started the game poorly, constantly giving up possession with misplaced passes and generally looking lacklustre in their attitude and application. However captain Philip Hall took the opportunity to show the commitment necessary when, bursting forward from defence, he played a through ball to Andy Place who finished comfortably to give RCA the lead after 20 minutes. This should have been the signal for an improvement, but still RCA were wasteful in possession and the final ball was often under hit or given away to a grateful Sunniside.
This slack play was then assisted by a dreadful refereeing decision when Lee Knight controlled a through ball under no pressure on his chest and the official chose to give a penalty for hand ball, which Sunniside gratefully accepted to bring the scores level.
RCA pushed forward and despite still huffing and puffing managed to create another four great chances to retake the lead, but dreadful finishing brought no goals, the worst of which was when Andy Place was released clean through on goal with two team mates alongside, but he decided to go it alone instead of squaring for a tap in and fluffed the chance, so 1 - 1 at half time.
The second half was even worse than the first. Despite RCA having all the ball they failed to test the Sunniside keeper once and sure enough Sunniside got one chance through bad defensive play from both RCA full backs, which they gleefully accepted and that was that, a 2-1 defeat, that should have been a comfortable victory.
Good luck to Sunniside who wanted it more and defended stoutly, but really they did not have to be that good to beat a dreadful RCA side, whose only players to come out with any credit would be skipper Phil Hall and his central defensive partner Lee Knight.
So on to another cup tie next week against Golden Lion at Meadow Park, 10.30 KO, when a much improved performance will be expected.