Sunderland RCA 5 Thornaby 1

skilltraining Northern League

Saturday, 11 October 2008

Sunderland RCA got themselves back on the winning track with a 5-1 victory over Thornaby at Meadow Park. Hicker made a couple of changes to the line up, with new goalkeeper Gary Hoggeth coming in to replace Craig Shields, who's season will end soon as he has another operation to face. Good luck, Shieldsy!

Gary Shields started wide right, with Lee Owens wide left in a 4-4-2 formation, though no doubt they would switch at times during the game. Also included on the bench were debutants Chris Youldon from the under 18s, and Sparky Davison signed from the CW.

The game started on a beautiful afternoon, and after a few early exchanges RCA took the lead with our first serious attack, a great ball from Buddy putting Andy Jennings in to run at the keeper and slide it past him with minimum fuss. A few minutes of back and forth followed, as a young looking Thornaby side put themselves about, before our second good move saw Buddy put Lee Owens away to cross well where David Tait finished with a deft strike. 2-0 after 13 minutes, and looking good.

Thornaby struck back immediately and hit the post from close range, before the game settled into a bit of a scrappy pattern, with good defensive play from both sides making it hard for attackers to make their mark. This continued as the half wore on and it remained 2-0 at the break.

RCA came out looking strong for the second half. Dean Goodwin replaced Mark McLeod and the first ten minutes of the half saw RCA well on top and create and miss a series of good chances, with Andy Jennings, David Tait, Lee Owens, Gary Shields and Buddy Halliday all having good opportunities. It stayed at 2-0 though and Thornaby came back more into the game and some of us started to worry that we might pay for our profligacy. The impressive Abdullah hit the bar for Thornaby from a corner as a warning, and the bench became somewhat agitated. It looked as if it would stay 2-0 until the end, as Hicker gave young Youldon and Davison their chances for Tait and Jennings.

With five minutes left however an all action finish started as Youldon got his first Northern league goal as he advanced on the keeper and just beat his despairing effort to save. From the kick off Thornaby went straight up and made it 3-1, before with time running out first Sparky got his head to a good Shieldsy cross, and then Lee Owens produced a trademark top corner finish to give the scoreline a different gloss. 5-1 at the end and this big week of league action is underway.