Tuesday, 18 March 2014
EBAC Northern League Division 1
Goalscorers: SRCA: None Penrith: Gardiner.
RCA welcomed, after umpteen postponements, Penrith to Meadow Park for this important EBAC Northern League match; three points for either team would almost certainly guarantee survival in the first division for next season.
Once again their was a strong blustery wind blowing directly down the slope which Penrith took advantage of in the first half.
However it was RCA who had the first real opportunity to attack with Shields getting past one marker before crossing into the box to Patton who fired straight at a Penrith defender.
The game was in danger of getting out of hand as early as the eighth minute when a reckless challenge on Jury by Read went unpunished by the referee and a minute later he had to have a word with Jury and Davidson after words were exchanged.
In the 10th minute a corner was awarded to Penrith and the cross in by Cameron Wilson was headed over the bar by the Rigg.
A midfield battle ensued for the next 10 minutes with both teams fully committed to winning the battle.
In the 19th minute a long throw from Williams was collected by Gardiner in the penalty area; the Penrith striker swivelled with the ball before sending it into the bottom corner of the net just out of reach of Carmichael.
Penrith, for all their possession, were not creating many real chances with to many long range efforts flying well wide of the target and when they did try to get into teh penalty area they were met with a very resilient RCA defence.
On the half hour mark Penrith had only their second real shot on goal when Read managed to slip his marker before firing in a low driven shot which Carmichael saved supurbly.
RCA were being forced to defend in numbers but were always dangerous on the counter attack, especially with the introduction of the pacy Fryatt for the injured Shields.
In the 40th minute it took a great defensive covering challenge from Jury to deny Jackson a strike at an empty net after Carmichael looked to have been fouled in the original build up play.
As the cliché goes this was always going to be a game of two halves and so it turned out as RCA piled on the pressure in the second half but like Penrith in the first half they were finding it difficult to get a clear shot on target as Penrith's defence held firm.
In the 65th minute a breakaway by Davidson ended with a good challenge from Preston sending the ball for a corner, inexplicably the referee awarded a goal kick to RCA. This started a serious of bizarre events which culminated in the game getting out of hand as the players got frustrated at the some of the decisions given.
Fryatt was on the end of a number of cynical fouls, all of which went unpunished and in the 67th minute RCA recorded their first shot on target when they were awarded a freekick after yet another foul on Fryatt. Patton struck a sweet freekick which brought a truly spectacular save from Richardson.
From the resulting corner the ball was headed behind for a second corner by Taylor, this time when the ball was played in Barton's header struck Davidson and went over the bar, a goal kick awarded infuriated the RCA players.
From the goalkick the ball was played wide where Fryatt won the ball and played the ball into Barton who spun past his defender before chipping the keeper only to have the goal disallowed for offside.
Then within a minute, as RCA started to dominate, the ball was played into the area by Stanger to Barton who in the process of shooting was hauled to the ground and the ball spun away harmlessly to Richardson in the Penrith goal.
RCA continued to dominate possession without testing the keeper and you could not fault the effort of the players from both sides.
However as the game drifted toward full time the game became scappy and disjointed. Andrew Brown had an effort saved by the keeper. Stanger also had an effort which went wide and in the dying minutes a shot from Barton was blocked by Rigg.
If effort and endeavour won football matches then we would have won this one comfortably. A draw would have been a fair result unfortunately, on the night Penrith carried that little bit of luck.