Sunday 18 October 2009 FA Carlsberg Sunday Cup - First Round
RCA The Barnes exited this year's FA Carlsberg Sunday Cup at the hands of a very strong Liverpool Lobster FC, losing 4 - 0. RCA started brightly moving the ball effectively and getting into good positions with Hooks in midfield dictating play and wide men Davis and Metcalfe figuring prominently, but the good start was undone, when after 10 minutes Lobster's first first effective attack saw left winger Rimmer deliver the ball into the feet of centre forward Ennis who turned RCA's Hall and rifled an unstoppable left foot shot high into the roof of the net, giving keeper Atkinson no chance.
Lobster, boosted by this confidence builder, started to come into the game now and it was end to end, with RCA playing good attractve footbal, but unable to penetrate in the final third of the pitch. After 30 minutes Lobsters midfielder Bailley picked up the ball just inside RCA's half, advanced unchallenged to within 35 yards of goal and unleashed a rocket which flew into the top left hand corner of Atkinson's net without him being able to move - a truly sensational strike, which gave the half time score 2-0 to Lobster and RCA a difficult second half to come back into the game.
The second half started with RCA needing to get back into the match quickly, but the opposite happened when after just three minutes a free kick was sent to the far post where Lobster's Alderson rose unchallenged to send a header back across goal into the far corner to put Lobster 3 - 0 up and cruising. RCA continued to try to play their way back into the match, but once again when they got to the final third their efforts came to nought and after 75 minutes Billey again picked the ball up in a similar position to the first half and once again hit a fizzer which this time rocketed into the bottom right hand corner of the net to put the result beyond doubt.
The final result was perhaps slightly harsh on the young RCA outfit, but all in all Lobster were just too powerfull and had more about them, partcularly up front, but it will stand RCA in good stead to be competing against teams of this calibre. Hopefully come next year we may get a kinder draw, whilst Lobster can look forward, I would think, to a good run in this year's competition.
I would like to thank all supporters who turned up for what was a healthy crowd and we hope you were at least impressed and entertained enough to return for further fixtures on Sunday mornings at Meadow Park.