12 September 2009
skilltrainingltd Northern League Division II
Sunderland RCA maintained their inpressive start to the season with a seventh successive league win at Thornaby. However the "Ryes" didn't have it all their own way as Thornaby showed plenty of fighting spirit in the first half.
RCA opened the scoring with the first real attack of the game when a through ball from McLeod found Taylor on the edge of the box where he beat the defender before blasting the ball into the back of the net.
A minute later and Thornaby were almost level when a shot from Livingstone rattled the post before being cleared by McGuinness. Davison saw an effort go wide and Taylor was also off target with a shot. At the other end Thornaby were causing a few problems of their own with McLean called upon to make a save from Winspear.
The equaliser came in the 24th minute when the quick thinking of Tomlinson caught the RCA defenders sleeping. While they were still arguing about the validity of a freekick, Tomlinson stepped up and passed the ball to Gibson who squared it to Garside who fired home.
RCA reacted with some good football down the right and when Stewart was fouled on the edge of the box it was an ideal situation for them to exploit the Thornaby defence; unfortumnately the well taken free kick went narrowly wide. Thornaby then suffered a major setback when Abdullah, auguably their best defender, was carried off the pitch with a pulled hamstring.
RCA took control of the game in a scintillating 15 minute period at the start of the second half. Davison had two efforts on goal in the opening four minutes of the half and when Stewart cut inside he was brought down inside the box by Reed and a penalty was awarded.
Coghlan took the penalty and his well struck shot rebounded off the post. Jones reacted the quickest and fired the ball home from an acute angle.
Stewart was starting to get at the Thornaby defence on the right and Davies was causing problems down the left. It was only a matter of time before they increased their lead - this time Stewart played a neat one two with Davison inside the box before beating Pisawi with a powerful shot.
Thornaby were unable to cope with the pace of the game and started to tire while RCA were starting to play some really good football. Stewart was the provider for the fourth goal when he burst past two defenders before firing in a shot which was weel saved by Pisawi, but the ball rebounded to Stewart who squared the ball to substitute Davis who sidefooted home from close range.
Thornaby tried to make a fight of it but could not get past the RCA defence and were for the most part kept at bay by a well-drilled RCA defence. When they did get into good positions their final ball let them down or they found McLean in the RCA goal hard to beat.
In the 85th minute Davison rounded off a good second half performance when a received a pass from Noble, controlled the ball with his right foot and turned a hit a thunderbolt of a right foot shot into the top corner of the net.
