Hebburn Town 4 Sunderland RCA 3

skilltraining Northern League

Saturday, 30 August 2008

A highly disputed goal separated Hebburn and Sunderland RCA at the end of the match, but in truth this was another frustrating display by the visitors.

RCA got off to a flyer. Andy Jennings knocked a long ball down to Paul Sammons who worked hard on the right to deliver a perfect cross for Gary Shields to knock the ball past the Hebburn keeper. 1 - 0 up before a minute had gone. This gave us some confidence and we were comfortable for the first 20 minutes, with new signing Neil Moan heading goal ward on seven minutes only for the referee to pull pull up for pushing and Paul Sammons putting the ball in the back of the Hebburn net, but again the referee had blown for a push.

On 28 minutes a cross from the left saw a good challenge form Andy Jennings and the ball feel to Paul Sammons again, but his shot went wide.

By this time Hebburn had worked their way back into the match and on 33 minutes a left wing cross fell to Stephen Rutherford who shot across Craig Shields to equalise.

On 40 minutes we gave the ball away badly in midfield and Hebburn ran through. The shot on goal was parried, but then ran to a Hebburn forward who looked clearly to be in an offside position, with the linesman in a good position, but the flag did not come up. There was much protest from the RCA players and after the match they were adamant that this was a clear off-side.

After the break RCA made strong efforts to get back on terms. Strong running and a cross from Gary Shields led to a clearance for a corner. on 50 minutes Ritchie Jordan snatched at a shot to fire just wide of the inside post. On 58 minutes a strong run from Andy Middleton, who had come on for Paul Sammons, led to the ball falling to Sean Davies, who shot powerfully, but just over.

0n 65 minutes Hebburn extended their lead with a free header from a right wing corner to make it 3 - 1 to the home side. RCA's response was to use our last substitution bringing on Paul Taylor for Anth Laidler.

Determination and strong running from substitute Dean Goodwin was beginning to drive RCA forward and on 72 minutes Dean was on hand in the box to hook in from a Sean Davies cross. On 80 minutes a snap shot from rom Paul Taylor was pushed around the post.

Hopes of a come back looked to be completely dashed when Hebburn hit their fourth, with RCA's attacking leaving them too exposed at the back.

On 87 minutes Dean Goodwin popped up again to make it 4 - 3, but it was not enough.