Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Durham Challenge Cup 2nd Round
Over 200 attended this match and witnessed a hard fought contest in which RCA matched the reigning League champions Spennymoor for over an hour before succumbing in the 72 minute to a beautiful own goal by Mark Davison and 2 minutes later Ex RCA player Keith "Rasher" Graydon rubbed salt in the wounds with a brilliantly executed freekick which, stand in keeper Craig Shields, couldn't reach as it floated into the net off the far post.
RCA did have chances in the first half and should have got one back late in the game when Owens shot was cleared off the line. Overall Spennymoor looked the more composed team and deserved to be in the next round of the draw.
RCA were forced to make three changes to the side that beat Shildon eight days ago with Craig Shields and Carl Beasley coming in for Cup tied Neal Atkinson and Richard Paxton. Gary Shields replaced the injured Joseph Walton. Moors made one change to the team that defeated Stokesley Sports Club at the weekend with Robert Dean replacing first choice keeper Craig Turns.
Both sides went at each other in the opening 10 minutes with most of the play in the midfield and very little in the final third. RCA forced the first save of the game when Owens burst into the box and fired low, Dean managed to turn the ball round the post for a corner. The keeper was then forced to concede another corner when the in-swinging kick looked likely to dip under the bar. Spennymoor were quick to capitalize on a poor back pass when Shields' clearance fell to Cogdon. but the lively strikers shot was blocked by Beasley. Dean kept Spennymoor in the game with a number of saves, one after an Owens, 1-2 with Davison left the RCA Winger in on goal but Dean was equal to the shot.
Lewis Dodds fired wide for Spennymoor when RCA were unable to clear a corner.
Sonny Andrews had a golden opportunity to break the deadlock in the 25th minute when his powerful header flashed wide of the post with keeper Shields beaten. The rest of the half saw the defences of both teams pretty well on top and the only other real opportunity fell to Capper who fired over the bar.
The second half saw Spennymoor up the tempo as they went looking for the win and RCA, whilst defending well, were not creating anything in attack.
Shields was forced into action to smother a dangerous cross from Andrews.
There was little between the two teams and both managers looked to the bench for inspiration. Jason Ainsley found it with the introduction of former RCA player Graydon; from the moment he came on he seemed to find space in midfield. However it was a misunderstanding that lead to the first goal. A poor back pass by James Oates to Shields saw the ball roll past the advancing keeper to Andrews and Oates only just got back to clear the ball for a corner. Unfortunately the resulting corner taken by Ruddy was met by Davison and the ball flashed into his own goal past the despairing dive of Shields.
Within two minutes RCA were 2 – 0 down when Spennymoor were awarded a freekick and RCA's thorn in the side Graydon curled a delightful set piece beyond Shields and into the top corner.
RCA had chances to get back at Spennymoor, the best came late in the game when Owens broke away to round Dean, but his shot was cleared off the line by Stephen Foster. In the final minutes of the game Shields brought off a truly great save from Johnston.
In the end, it has to be said that this was a very professional performance by both teams and it shows just how far RCA have come to be able to compete at a consistently high level. On tonight’s performances both teams will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.