Solex Manufacturing Sunderland Sunday League 3 v 2 Gateshead & District Sunday League
Thursday, 18 February at Chester-le-Street Town
The Sunderland Sunday League, including four representatives from RCA The Barnes (Philip Hall, Martin Metcalfe, Paul Hartley and Jonathan Davis) and 'Sparky' Davison from the RCA Saturday side, won a competitive game against the Gateshead and District Sunday League on Thursday night to progress to a semi-final tie against either the Durham or Spennymoor League.
The Gateshead team was a very strong outfit mainly made up of Northern League Division 1 players. They scored very early through a Chris Laws free kick and dominated the slightly overawed Sunderland team for the first 20 minutes. Gradually though, after management team of Meek and 'G' had adjusted their formation, Sunderland came more into the game and should have equalised when Davison shot over the bar when set up by ex-RCA full back Adam McGuinness. On the half hour though, following a corner, the ball came out to the edge of the box and Martin Metcalfe's deflected shot flew into the net. Sunderland then had a good chance when McGuinness's shot was blocked by the Gateshead keeper. When Gateshead surged downfield they were awarded a soft penalty, for what appeared to be an honest challenge from Philip Hall, which was duly dispatched by Gateshead skipper Michael Laws to give a half time score of 2 - 1 to Gateshead.
However Sunderland, far from feeling sorry for themselves, came out battling for the second half and after the hour equalised when Davison rose unchallenged in the six yard box to head home. Things got better still after 75 minutes when Davison stroked an unstopable free kick round the wall and into the top right hand corner of the net to put Sunderland ahead for the first time. Despite strong pressure from Gateshead in the last 10 minutes the Sunderland defence held firm for a well deserved victory.
Watch this space for details of the semi-final tie, which will be in Sunderland at a venue and date to be confirmed.