Sunderland RCA FC grassroots football

Today's Northern League match away to Marske has been postponed because of a frozen pitch.

Sunday, 29 January 2012

Sunderland Sunday Premier League

A thoroughly entertaing encounter resulted in a deserved point apiece after a final scoreline of 2-2.

RCA started the brighter and nearly made the breakthrough after ten minutes when 'Marni' Metcalfe broke onto a ball and saw his well hit drive tipped onto the bar and behind for a corner, keeper Heath doing well.

Saturday, 28 January 2012

STL Northern League Division 1

Andy Jennings bursts through on goal during the first half of the match.

Click here for a slideshow of photos from the match

The management team were forced to make wholesale changes for today's match with Mark Davison sustaining a recurrence of an ankle injury in training on Wednesday, Andrew Cuthbertson unavailable, family commitments and Lee Owens working away. In came Jennings, Robson and Wells to replace these and Richard Paxton returned to the centre of defence to replace James Oates.

After 20 minutes of the game no one could have predicted the score as RCA were in total control of the game. Then the wheels came off and they let Consett get back into the game and in the end both teams had great chances to grab a win.

Funny place Consett; for a start it's a lot further away than you think. By the time you get there you fancy you should be seeing lakes and mountains, but you don't, just sheep. You are however, up a good height, which got me to thinking whether the laws of nature that give those mountain men from Kenya and Ethiopia such an advantage when they come down to sea level to run against our plucky lads also apply to Consett footballers? Does plying your trade on a regular basis in the thin air of the Belle Vue mean that your legs go round a lot easier when you come down to the flatlands? Should there be a handicap system in the Northern League that negates this advantage? And if so, how much more would it apply to Tow Law? Could be fun when reporting the results, "Consett won 1-0 but thanks to the high altitude factor being applied the final result goes down as 2-1 to RCA", "Tow Law were going well in the race for the championship until the mountain handicap kicked in and they were docked 12 points". Well, the management committee would have something else to do other than worrying about bad language, which might be a blessing; not that I am religious you understand. Or over sensitive. Or suggesting anybody else is.

Anyway I only jest of course, nothing wrong with being up high, I could do with being up six feet higher myself but there you go....

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Sunday League Cup

RCA Barnes exited the League Cup when Farringdon deservedly defeated them at Meadow Park, albeit with a slightly flattering scoreline of 4-0.

Farringdon had the advantage of the slope and a fierce wind in the first half and were immediately on the front foot, but RCA withstood the early pressure until a corner was badly defended allowing Pope to shoot through a crowded penalty area into the far corner from 10 yards, after 10 minutes to put Farra 1-0 ahead. The game then became a more evenly balanced affair with RCA breaking forward effectively and having one or two half decent chances to equalise up till half time.

Saturday, 21 January 2012

STL Northern League Division 1

Penalty? Tom Berj goes down inside the Penrith area, but this and other appeals went unanswered.

Click here for a slideshow of photos from the match.

The dismal home form continues with yet another draw against a below average Penrith team who battled hard but only really created the one chance with which they scored. For all our possession we were unable to produce the quality in the final third of the pitch. Ifs and buts will not win games, if the penalty appeal had been successful would we have scored the equaliser? Never mind we are as high in the league as any other RCA team in history and teams are coming to Meadow Park to defend, we need to find a way of breaking teams down, the same way that Spennymoor do.