Saturday, 27 October 2012
Northern League Division 1
Goalscorers: Newcastle Benfield Ormston (2) Young.
Sunderland RCA's terrible home Hoodoo continues with a defeat to Newcastle Benfield FC at Meadow Park.
In a woefully below par first half RCA fell behind 2-0 after some poor defending gifted Benfield the goals. With this initiative they never looked back and although RCA improved in the second period it was never enough to get back into the game.
Benfield, under new manager Tony Woodhouse, started the game really well keeping posession and making RCA work extremely hard to get the ball.
In the seventh minute their possession football paid off when Pounder received the ball on the left, played a one two with Kane before crossing into the box where Preston, although first to the ball, only directed his header to the feet of Ormston who guided the ball past Atkinson and into the net.
RCA were finding it difficult to get hold of the ball and when they did they couldn't string two passes together.
Benfield were attacking relentlessly and it was no suprise when, in the 20th minute a good ball into the box from Young found Benjamin, as the Benfield forward tried to turn he was fouled by Parker and the referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty. Ormston strode up and placed the ball to the left of Atkinson who managed to get a hand to it, but could only palm it into the net.
In the 26th minute RCA created their first attampt on goal when Guerin-Lokonga rounded Leighton before shooting low but Grainger was able to get down and parry round the corner. Benfield sucessfully defended the corner and set up yet another attack.
Although RCA were getting a lot more of the ball they were not having any success in the final third of the pitch with Coulson and Leighton in no mood to concede anything today.
Benfield also looked like they were ready to rest on their laurels until half time as the game drifted into a midfield stalemate. The only chance fell to Preston in the 42nd minute when a corner was headed away by Coulson and Preston's snap shot went narrowly wide.
The second half saw an improvement in the RCA team as they committed more to attack and in the 50th minute Southern played in Gilbert and the RCA full back produced a great shot which brought an even better reaction save from Grainger.
Ex-Sunderland AFC and Durham City player Home-Jackson making his debut replaced the under par Barton and almost scored with his first touch of the ball, a cross from Gilbert was headed down by Guerin-Lokonga into the path of Home-Jackson who chose to head the ball goalwards, Grainger was able to react and was fortunate that the ball came straight at him.
Within a minute Fryatt was unlucky with a dipping shot which went narrowly over the bar.
Benfield weathered this early onslaught by RCA and in the 71st minute extended their lead when a Grainger goalkick was missed by Richards in midfield and the ball ran through to Young who was unmarked 25 yards out and he made no mistake firing the ball past the helpless dive of Atkinson.
The RCA team were physically shaken by this goal and although they rallied and Preston saw one thundering header richocette off Leighton when it was heading for the top corner and Guerin-Lokonga had a shot brilliantly saved by Grainger the effort was a little to late to make a difference and Benfield were the team who ran out worthy winners in the end.
This is the first time this season that the team have been beaten by more than one goal and might be the kick up the behind that they needed before next week's matches at Billingham Town on Tuesday and Saturday.