Saturday, 10 March 2012
STL Northern League Division 1
Power play: Whitley Bay captain Paul Robinson takes evasive action as Adam McGuinness puts in a cross.
Sky Tyne and Wear match comment and video highlights
Whitley Bay web site match report
Click here for photos from the match
RCA made one change for the visit of Whitley Bay to Meadow Park. David Wells replaced Gary Shields in a new look forward line.
An exciting game was expected and was well and truly delivered as both teams contributed to an exhilarating spectacle that had both sets of supporters on the edge of their seats right up until the final whistle.
Playing up the slope in the first half RCA had a great opportunity to open the scoring in the second minute when a through ball from Walton found Davison in loads of space inside the 18 yard area; the RCA striker inexplicably decided to square the ball rather than shoot and Ponder was able to clear the ball downfield.
Whitley Bay with the strong breeze at their backs, began to press forward and in the fifth minute Chow had a shot blocked by Paxton and Kerr, following in, fired the rebound over the bar.
Both teams were trying to keep the ball on the ground and were playing some attractive football without any real end result.
Neither keeper was seriously tested until the 18th minute when Robinson won possession before firing in a 30 yard shot that was well saved by Atkinson. This seemed to lift the Bay and two minutes later they took the lead. Robinson won the ball 25 yards out and skipped past two defenders before unleashing a powerful drive from the edge of the penalty area into the corner of the net.
RCA responded with a flurry of chances, the first a long range effort from Davison was well saved by Hayes. The Whitley Bay keeper was called upon a minute later to make a double save. As a corner was cleared it fell to Davison whose shot was parried away by Hayes, McGuinness from the edge of the box powered in a left foot shot which struck Hayes on the legs and rebounded to safety.
Whitley came back at RCA and went two goals up on 26 minutes when Pounder won the ball in mid-field before hitting a tremendous 35 yard shot which beat Atkinson before crashing off the underside of the bar and into the net.
The RCA management team made a tactical substitution bringing on former Whitley defender Ian Dixon to replace McGuinness in an effort to match Whitley Bay in midfield. Unfortunately, although this was effective, Dixon was only on the pitch for 12 minutes before damaging knee ligaments and he was forced to leave the field and was replaced by Beasley.
In the final minute of the half RCA almost score when Tom Berj headed over the bar.
Overall 2-0 to Whitley Bay was probably about right. The difference between the teams was the quality of the finishing.
The second half began with Whitley continuing to force the pace, and when Fawcett broke clear up the left wing, he sent a lovely cross into the box which beat everyone and went harmlessly for a goal kick.
Paul Robinson was causing al sorts of problems for the RCA defence and might have added a third goal after 55 minutes, jinxing past two defenders inside the area, but his shot was brilliantly pushed behind by Atkinson.
RCA started to press more as they got to grips with the Bay midfield and in a four minute spell they were back in the game level at 2-2.
Jennings was brought on to replace Wells and add a bit of height to the RCA forward line. Bay tried to counter this move bringing on Smith for the injured McMullen. A minute after these substitutions RCA were awarded a corner and in melee that ensued Oates kept a cool head before firing the ball into the roof of the net.
The scores were level in the 64th minute when Berj won the ball on the edge on the Whitley Bay box before sliding the ball to Davison who struck excellent shot from 20 yards out into the bottom corner of the net.
The game was turning into a full-blooded typical Northern League match. Whitley Bay responded to the equaliser as only they can by going on the attack and Ormston was denied by Jones who deflected the ball high over the bar after the Bay midfielder looked odds on to score.
Whitley Bay regained the lead in the 72nd minute when a corner was only cleared as far as Robinson. The Bay captain played an inch perfect pass to Pounder who, with the outside of his boot slotted home his second goal of the game.
Within a minute RCA were back on the attack with Walton slipping the ball to Close who curled the ball with the outside of his right foot inches over the bar.
Whitley Bay were being forced to defend deep as RCA went in search of another equaliser and were rewarded when Davison rose head and shoulders above the Bay defence to power in a terrific header 3-3 with ten minutes to go.
RCA continued to put Whitley Bay under pressure and they were winning all the 50-50 challenges. RCA had a penalty appeal turned down in the 83rd minute when Close looked to be blocked when challenging for a header. Then two minutes later RCA were awarded a penalty when RCA captain Close went to ground inside the penalty under challenge from Williams. The referee immediately pointed to the spot. The decision did look a little dubious, but in fairness their was contact before Close went down. The player himself did not make a meal of it. The old cliche that sometimes they are given sometimes they are not springs to mind. Maybe the incident a couple of minutes earlier was on the referees mind.
However, when all the commotion had died down Walton stepped up to send Hayes the wrong way from the spot and put RCA ahead for the first time in the game.
As always with Whitley Bay, they never lie down and still had time to almost level the scores when a Kerr free kick from just outside the box failed by inches to find the target.
A game that looked to have been lost at half time was ultimately won with a spirited second half display by the whole RCA team.