Saturday, 02 April 2011
STL Northern League Division 1
Meadow Park trebled its usual number of photographers at the Spennymoor match on Saturday. The Sunderland Echo were there, so watch out for a team and perhaps some action shots in the paper this week.
We also welcomed guest photographer Ron Aitchison who has kindly given us a link to the photos he took. Click here to see a slide show of Ron's photos.
Finally, please click here to see a slide show of photos of the match from the usual photographer.
RCA welcomed League leaders Spennymoor Town to Meadow Park and although giving a good account of themselves they fell victim to two strikes either side of half time. Once again, through injury and suspensions there were changes to the team, manager Hixon opting for a 4-5-1 formation brought in Butler, Graydon, Carling and Shields as both Logan and Toft were sidelined through injury. To make matters worse Moors were able to recall keeper Turns and striker Johnston for the game.
RCA, facing the wind and the slope, started brightly and were on top in the early exchanges forcing, Spennymoor to defend deep. A snap shot from home debutant Tymon flashed narrowly past Turns' goal in the eighth minute and the reaction from Moors was almost instant with Capper cutting in from the left to unleash a shot which went wide.
Turns was then called upon to save low down after a shot from Walton was deflected goalwards by Ryan. RCA were keeping possession well and should have opened th escoring in the 14th minute when Tymon out jumped the Moors defence to flick a header into the path of Richards who found Walton with a sublime pass which sliced apart the Moors defence, but Walton's curling shot went narrowly wide with Turns beaten.
RCA looked in control at this point and a good move between Richards and Tymon created a chance for Carling in front of goal, but he was guilty of slashing at the shot and it flew wide.
The game threatened to boil over as a number of challenges started to fly in with firstly Oates and Francis clashing and then Francis seemed to take retribution on RCA captain Beasley after a number of challenges had been allowed to go unchecked.
Spennymoor took the lead when Francis crossed in from the right, straight across the face of goal and the ball fell between the defender and Hoggeth and Laws nipped in between the two to blast home from close range.
Francis took the game by the scruff of the neck and his passing and control were mesmerising, he broke from midfield into the box and laid the ball into the path of Johnston but the striker scuffed his shot wide of the post from 12 yards.
RCA came back a Moors before half time and Matty Tymon, almost levelled when he fired wide after good work down the right by Michael Dalton. then Leon Carling headed wide from a corner by Keith Graydon.
At the start of the second half RCA were penned back as Moors went looking for the goal that would kill the game. Cogdon out on the left twice went close and Johnston had a great chance, but fired wide.
When Cogdon went down under a challenge from Hoggeth the penalty appeals were rightly turned down by the referee. at the other end Tymon fired straight at Turns when in a great position and almost immediiately Beasley did the same. The game was opening up and both teams were playing some excellent football.
The second goal for Moors came with another defence splitting pass from Francis which found Johnson on the edge of the box and he deftly flicked the ball over Hoggeth for a truely stunning goal. This took the wind out of the sails of RCA and Moors started to take control, producing some great passing football.
The final minutes saw few chances for either side.
As RCA pushed forward the Moors defenders had to dig in to preserve a clean sheet.
All in all an entertaining match and hopefully the same will be repeated as the two teams will battle it out again in the League Cup semi-final on Monday, 11 April.
