Tuesday, 5 March 2013
EBAC Northern League Division 1
Goal Scorers: West: Campbell, Wilkinson, Banks, Bulmer, Moffat 2: SRCA: Close 2
After the excellent display against Bedlington at the weekend RCA came back to earth with a massive bump against a rampaging West Auckland team.
Debutant keeper Scott Young must have been shellshocked after six minutes as the defence in front of him crumbled and he was left hopelessly exposed.
RCA brought back Buzzeo and Close, who had been very effective as a stand in right back, was moved into his more customary position in the centre of the park.
In the opening minute of the game Shaw lost possession in the west 18 yard box and the ball was swiftly sent forward to Moffatt who fed the ball to Campbell who scored with an angled drive past Young.
On five minutes Young was called upon again, this time turning a Cambell shot round the post. the resultant Coffey corner was headed home by the unchallenged Wilkinson. 2-0 down inside six minutes: not what the doctor ordered.
RCA tried to respond and a run from Shaw ended in the winger forcing the first save of the night from Mullin.
Cambell and Moffatt were having a field day up front and two good save from Young denied Cambell from making it a hat trick inside 20 minutes.
Things went from bad to worse in the 23rd minute when Home-Jackson pulled up with a hamstring problem and was replaced by Dixon.
Almost immediately Gibson sent Banks through on goal and in those positions he very rarely misses, so 3-0 down in less than half an hour.
The home crowd were in raptures and everyone was wondering when Moffatt would put his stamp on the game, the answer was four minutes later when Campbell skipped past the non existent tackle of Buzzeo, made a great run down the left before crossing into the box where Moffat was on hand to volley home from 1o yards.
West were in full control and looking to add to the score and it was that man Moffat again this time picking the ball up 20 yards from goal he deftly lobbed the keeper to make it five on 37 minutes.
Things surely couldn't get worse?
RCA's improvement was evident almost from the kick off in the second half, with Shaw sending Dixon free on the left but his cross evaded Clarke in the box and was cleared by Gray.
A run by Banks on the right ended in the winger firing wide and in the 55th minute RCA got a goal back when a long clearace was pounced upon by Close and the RCA skipper blasted the ball home.
This gave RCA the lift that they needed and five minutes later it should have been 5-2 when Shaw had a great shot saved by Mullin.
In the 66th minute a freekick was headed down by Clarke into the path of Close who gave the keeper no chance from 10 yards out.
Game on as RCA poured forward. Shaw was causing a lot of problems and it was only the superb keeping of Mullin that kept him off the score sheet on two seperate occasion denying him with the goal at his mercy.
Having weathered the RCA pressure back came West and Young was forced into making a double save firstly from Bulmer and then from Banks
In the final minute Peter Bulmer, fired the sixth into the top corner giving Young no chance.
Managers comments taken from Ray Simpson's report:
West Auckland manager Peter Dixon said: "It could have been a lot more. At half time, it was a classic case of where do we go from here. We've been threatening to do that against a lot of teams."
RCA manager Neil Hixon said: "It was the worst first half I've ever been involved in, I gave the players a right roasting at half time. We competed in the second half and could have pinched a draw with the chances we had."