RCA made the long trip over the North Yorkshire moors to visit Pickering Town in this Ebac Northern League Division 1 clash. Pickering have struggled to find their form this season while RCA, after a fairly upbeat few weeks, were brought down to earth with a bump against league leaders Bishop Auckland.
Callum Guy and Mark Davison returned to the starting eleven replacing the suspended Denver Morris and the less than 100% fit Michael Annang-Colquhoun.
The teams lined up as follows:
Pickering Town: Richardson, Godden, Thornton, Mills, Roddam, Poole, Wright, Barnes, Jessop, Brooksby ©, Love. Subs: Dawes, Alongohuro, Ferreira, Cattaneo, Maeer.
Sunderland RCA: Marrs, Allen, Lavery, Hall, Jakab, Charlton ©, Bennett, Moan, Davison, Fryatt, Guy. Subs: Annang-Colquhoun, Charmey, Nelson. Lawrence, Patton.
The match kicked off with RCA quickly into their stride playing some good possession football but without getting beyond the Pikes defence to trouble the home keeper.
The Pikes were awarded the first corner of the match after Hall made a hasty tackle on Brooksby to clear the danger; Jakab headed the ball clear from the corner.
Within a minute RCA moved forward with purpose when Moan played the ball wide to Fryatt, the winger played a quick one two with Davison before curling in a cross which was almost converted by Bennett.
The game settled into a midfield battle with neither team able to take command and the scrappiness of the game seemed to suit the hosts who were quite happy to disrupt play at every opportunity.
RCA almost took the lead in the 18th minute when Lavery picked up the ball from Marrs and strode forward before playing it wide to Bennett, he in turn squared the ball to Davison who teed the ball up for Guy but he shot inches over the bar.
The Pikes replied with a good move of their own with Love free on the right setting up Brooksby but his shot was blocked Allen for a corner. The corner was floated to the back post where it was headed over the bar by Mills.
A good move down the left by the Pikes' Captain Brooksby was partially halted by the tackle of Hall on the halfway line, with the RCA defender injured, the game was allowed to continue despite the injury being to the head, and the loose ball was picked up by Barnes who was allowed to continue and it was only a superb save from Marrs which denied the home side a controversial goal.
Hall returned to the pitch after the corner was cleared.
Another good forward move by RCA almost broke the deadlock when Jakab sent a long ball forward to Davison who controlled the ball well before chipping Richardson in the Pickering goal but his effort went over the bar.
Brooksby was becoming a thorn in the side of the RCA defence with his persistent niggly fouls after the ball was cleared. Only a good block tackle by Allen stopped him from scoring in the 34th minute.
RCA were starting to move through the gears and set up a period of prolonged pressure. A ball forward from the left by Lavery was headed into the path of Moan but his rising shot flew over the bar.
Two minute later and Moan was in the thick of the action again winning the ball on the edge of the box before hitting a low drive which was well saved by Richardson and cleared up field by Poole.
RCA were pushing the home team back onto the edge of their penalty area and another flowing move saw Allen pick out Fryatt with a great through ball he cut the ball back to Guy who was scythed down on the edge of the box. Lavery stepped up to take the free kick and the RCA full back hit a tremendous curling shot around the wall and just inside the post to give the visitors the lead.
Within a minute it could have been 2-0 when a corner by Charlton was headed away by Mills, the ball fell to Lavery but this time his effort went wide and in the final minute of the half another foul on Guy by Brooksby resulted in a freekick which struck the wall and rebounded to Fryatt who clipped a lovely shot which was heading for the top corner but Richardson somehow managed to tip the ball over the bar for a corner which was cleared.
The first move of the second half and Charlton played the ball to Lavery on the left his cross into the box was met by Davison but he headed over the bar.
Within minutes RCA were forced to defend and concede another corner, the ball was whipped into the box and met on the volley by Poole and the ball rocketed into the net giving Marrs no chance.
The game degenerated quickly as tackles went unpunished by the referee and eventually a scuffle developed between both Hall and Poole and the referee rightly booked both players.
There was little in the way of constructive football being played as both sets of players basically looked to stop the opposition from playing good football.
Moan was booked for a perfectly good header won on the halfway line and the temperature of the game rose further when Hall was dismissed when he appeared to completely miss the ball when in possession and made very little if any contact with the Pikes' forward who made a bit of a meal of it.
Within a minute of the dismissal RCA had a great chance to re-take the lead when a cross into the box by Charlton was headed by Davison but hit Poole who managed to make contact with the RCA forwards head in the process once again the referee did not recognise the seriousness of the head injury and only stopped play when RCA regained possession. Davison replaced by Annang-Colquhoun.
The game settled down a bit after that and RCA even with 10 men looked to push forward and were awarded a corner in the 62nd minute, Bennett took the corner to the edge of the box where Moan rose but could only direct his header wide of the post.
The visitors were however finding it increasingly difficult to keep possession and the Pikes were using their extra man advantage to full effect and a quick break by Thornton was halted by Nelson.
The Pikes took the lead with a very good goal - a strong run by Godden into the heart of the RCA midfield was not picked up and he played the ball forward to Jessop who turned sharply past Jakab before firing the ball beyond Marrs and into the bottom corner of the net.
From the kick off it could have become even worse for RCA when substitute Ferreira picked up a loose ball before taking the ball forward and firing in a shot which produced a terrific save from Marrs.
A good run forward by Annang-Colquhoun was halted by yet another unpunished foul. The freekick taken by Patton hit the wall and was cleared up field where Moan again won a 50/50 ball a little too aggressively for the referee’s liking and RCA were down to nine men as Moan received his second caution of the game.
The game was all but done now entering the final minutes and nine man RCA were awarded a freekick on the edge of the box. Patton stepped up and struck the ball which was handled by Thornton outside the box?
The free kicks was awarded closer to the edge of the box, Patton struck the ball low around the wall and Richardson pulled off a superb save to deny the equaliser and the ball was cleared out for a throw in.
Well into stoppage time and a poorly timed tackle by Patton to stop a quick breakaway resulted in a straight red for the RCA substitute.
Two weeks in a row we have let ourselves down with poor discipline. In this league you need to have 11 players on the pitch for 90 minutes or you suffer the consequences.
There was a case for some poor referee decisions today but we put ourselves in a position to make it easy for him to make those decisions.
In the lead 1-0 at half time and well on top we should not have risen to their tactics of intimidation and continued to play our natural game. Their game plan was to unsettle us get in our faces and in particular target Daryll and it worked superbly.
Next week we face Northallerton Town at home on Saturday, 29 October 2022: Kick off 3.00pm.