Andre Bennett in the thick of the action.
On our travels again this time to the Wanted Stadium to face West Auckland Town for this EBAC Northern League Division 1 fixture.
RCA were hoping to stop a run of six consecutive defeats while West Auckland has drawn three of their last four matches.
The RCA management team, without the services of Moan and Lavery through suspension and Hall injured, named an unchanged starting eleven.
The teams lined up as follows:
West Auckland Town: Cameron, Hegarty, Short, Potter, Brown, Harwood (c), Hume, Ellis, Blinco, Nicholson, Jackson. Subs: Lukeman, Heslop, McGeorge, Wright, Wade.
Sunderland RCA: Marrs, Morris, Charlton (c), Allen, Hawkins, Nelson, Trewick, Bennett, Davison, Patton, Fryatt. Subs: Lawrence, Annang-Colquhoun, Richards, Ezard, Ene.
West took advantage of the slope in the first half and looked to get into their stride early on with some slick passing.
However it was RCA who had the first real chance of the half when in the 7th minute a lovely through ball from Bennett was met by Patton but he was unable to lift the ball over Cameron and the West keeper blocked the shot.
The resulting corner was cleared by Brown to Hume who played in Nicholson but he shot well wide.
In the heavy condition no team was able to create much by way of goalmouth action and the game drifted towards the half hour mark without either keeper needing to make a save.
In the 35th minute West went one up when a move down the left seemed to have been cleared it fell to Ellis who curled a perfectly good shot into the top corner of the net.
A good break by Charlton on the left set Fryatt up but his driving run into the box was halted by Potter with the RCA man booked for simulating a dive in the box.
RCA should have leveled in the 42nd minute when Trewick played the ball to Patton on the edge of the box he played a good ball out to Morris who blasted high and wide with RCA players pouring into the six yard area looking for a square ball.
The second half started well for West who doubled their lead in the 49th minute when another long range effort, this time from Potter somehow dipped under Marrs' body and found its way into the net.
Two minutes later and West make inroads up the left again with Hume feeding the ball to Blinco who hit a low shot past Marrs and only a superb goal line clearance from Allen prevented West from going 3-0 up.
A good move by RCA involving Fryatt, Davison and Trewick was ended when Potter fouled Fryatt. Patten took the kick which rebounded of the wall and was cleared up field to Ellis who squared the ball to the unmarked Blinco inside the box and he made no mistake from 10 yards out steering the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
West were understandably rampant at this point and a minute later it was 4-0 when a surging run by Nicholson saw him burst into the box before firing past Marrs.
Five minutes later and Morris fouled Blinco as he broke towards the RCA box and the referee awarded a freekick which Blinco took, curling the ball over the wall and into the top corner of the net for 5-0.
The game seemingly put to bed, West started to relax a little playing some good possession football; however RCA continued to push for something out of the game and got their reward when a cross into the box was met by Davison whose looping header dropped under the crossbar to make it 5-1.
The visitors continue to push forward and a good run by Lawrence saw his shot blocked by Hegarty and the rebound was put over the bar Ene.
A twenty minute spell in the second half put paid to any thoughts of RCA coming away with anything from the Wanted Stadium.
Well done to the ground staff at West for managing to get this game on.
Despite the result there were still some good performances on the pitch today and we kept plugging away right up to the final whistle.
Next up we are due to play Stockton Town at home in the Durham Challenge Cup on Tuesday, 22 November. Kick off 7.30pm.