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League Cup
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Faced with a few injuries manager Neil Hixon decided to take no chances on fitness and go with a much altered team for the League Cup tie at Northallerton. Three players made their debuts, centre forward David Tait who joined from Nissan, and youngsters Michael Chapman playing wide left and Michael Laidler playing right back.
Within a couple of minutes of the start we went behind as Northallerton took the lead with a softish looking goal from centre forward John Ryan. Northallerton stayed on top for the first 10 minutes or so as we got ourselves sorted out, with their excellent left winger giving young Laidler a particularly hard time. But things steadied as Halliday and Coghlan got a grip in the middle of the park, and our wide players, Lee Owens and Michael Chapman began to see more of the ball.
Dean Goodwin, who had taken a nasty knock very early which will leave him with a right shiner, had a good effort saved before Owens went on a mazy run and slipped the ball through to young Chappie who finished well for his first RCA goal in the 15th minute.
And things got better a few minutes later as Tait also marked his debut with a goal, and a real good one, as he turned and volleyed past the keeper from 20 yards, We were on top for the rest of the half, and went in at the interval at 2-1 up, looking good.
Northallerton changed their formation for the second half, flooding midfield to try and stop Buddy and Micky Coghlan from playing, and for a while it worked, and they got their reward with an equaliser in the 51st minute. From then for the next half hour it was a real good cup tie with chances at either end, although to be fair I think we had the best of them. Lee Owens looked good, getting onto Coghlan's long ball's from the middle, young Chapman had an excellent debut, with good hard running and good positional play, David Tait worked hard on his own up front, and will think he should have scored from a header he put straight at the keeper, and Buddy was probably man of the match with good control in the middle of the park.
Having said that Jon Minniss, who had come into the side at the last minute for the injured Craig Shields made a number of good catches from dangerous crosses, as Northallerton constantly looked for their big men up front, who always looked a threat, and their wide men got at our defenders with pace on more than one occasion.
With 20 minutes to go and the game poised Neil went for an even more attacking formation, bringing Anth Holmes and Gary Shields on for Coghlan and Chapman, both of whom had understandably tired. The changes led to a flurry of chances for RCA, before disaster struck in the 81st minute as a free kick from wide right was not dealt with. Minniss came when he maybe should have stayed, and Roberts headed Northallerton ahead, this just after Paul Sammons had come on for Michael Laidler.
We chased the game even more. Bowesy ended up playing centre forward, and right at the death Northallerton broke and made it 4-2, which did not reflect the game. Lots of positives though, good debuts from Tait and Chapman, and it is good to have Lee Owens back, good width on both sides, and good quality in the middle of the park, if we can get the formation right, but a lack of pace in the middle and at the back. Lets be optimistic for the Vase on Saturday!