David Gordon launches a trademark attack down the wing for RCA. With David and Adam McGuinness, RCA are a formidable left wing force.
FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Saturday, 11 August 2012
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The 10 men of SRCA left it until the last 30 seconds of this FA Cup match to force a draw and the unlikely scorer of the equaliser was goalkeeper Neal Atkinson.
During the close season the management team have been very busy trying to build virtually a new team as players have been lured away by the promises of better recompense. The new players will need time to adjust to each other, but on today's display they have nothing to fear and proved that team spirit counts for a great deal in this league.
The following report is taken from the Sunday Sun:
GOALKEEPER Neal Atkinson scored a dramatic equaliser with virtually the last kick of the game to keep Sunderland RCA’S FA Cup dream alive.
Moments after pulling off a magnificent injury-time save, Atkinson worked more heroics at the other end of the field to earn the Wearsiders a replay at Meadow Park on Tuesday night.
RCA, who played for 56 minutes with 10 men, looked to be on their way out of the competition when they trailed going into added time.
For a split second, it appeared their hopes had ended when Ashington’s Phil Bell looked certain to score.
But somehow Atkinson kept the ball out.
And with the clock ticking down, deep into injury time, Neil Hixon’s side won a corner.
Keeper Atkinson went up with the rest of his team-mates.
Gary Shields’ kick was spot on and when Colliers’ goalkeeper Karl Dryden could only parry the ball, Atkinson was there to drive the ball into the net.
Immediately the game was restarted, the referee blew the final whistle, much to the relief of the visitors.
Hixon said: “I thought the players were magnificent bearing in mind that we had Brian Close sent off after just 34 minutes.
“The lads gave it their all and were rewarded with a last-ditch equaliser.
“Now we’ve got it all to do at our place on Tuesday.”
It was Close who opened up the first scoring opportunity for Andrew Appleby, but his effort was cleared.
A minute later, Ashington’s James Taylor became the first player to go into the referee’s notebook.
Tommy English almost opened up the RCA defence. At the other end Mark Hudson fired wide after good work by John Butler, before Close was shown a yellow card on 31 minutes.
Three minutes later he was given a second and immediately shown red.
The Colliers were now in the driving seat. A corner by English was headed just wide by Andy Dugdale and on the stroke of half time Marc Walton chipped Atkinson, only to see his clever effort clear the crossbar.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, RCA were limiting the hosts and it was not until the 70th minute that Ashington broke the deadlock. Gareth Williams and Walton combined to set up Gareth Bainbridge and he fired under Atkinson. His strike looked likely to win the game but there was still time for Atkinson to have the last word with his double heroics.
Colliers manager Gary Middleton said: “I thought we were comfortable all through the game but RCA just kept coming back. They played for almost an hour with 10 men so it’s not going to be easy in the replay but I’m certainly looking forward to it.”
MOM Neal Atkinson.