Sunday, 13 November 2011
Sunday League Cup
Both sides were severely depleted for this League Cup encounter. Steels had players missing or with thick heads due to over indulgance the previous night and RCA had a total of 13 players unavailable for selection (including the complete list of forwards) and captain Hall left out due to an injury picked up on Saturday. Nevertheless both teams got 11 players on the park and both had a couple of subs too.
Steels started much the better and were clearly up for the challenge, being first to most loose balls and playing some neat attractive football. They deservidely took the lead after 20 minutes when Staite outpaced the square back four of RCA and shot across keeper Stoker into the bottom left hand corner. Steels continued to have the better of the half and could easily have been 3 or 4 up by half time, but for some inspired keeping from Stoker and poor finishing.
RCA's management clearly had some harsh words at the break, because they came out in the second half and completely dominated the game, with Jonathan Davis and Paul Hartley (making a rare appearance whilst up from the Smoke for the weekend) taking over in midfield. It was no surprise when Andy Colledge (RCA assistant manager playing centre forward for first game in god knows how many years) slotted home from close range following good work from recent Northern Ireland signing Jamie Jackson. This was quickly followed by a Martin Metcalfe goal, again after good work down RCA's left flank to give RCA the lead for the first time. At this point RCA brought on centre half and captain Phil Hall to play up front and he immediately had an effect when winning the ball to feed Jamie Jackson who went round the keeper to score RCA's third. Hall then got himself on the scoresheet when the keeper fumbled. Further goals came from another Colledge strike, a well deserved goal from MoM Jonathan Davis and finally another Hall strike to give RCA an, in the end, comfortable 7-1 victory, which rather flattered them as Steels played their part in a very competitive match.