Match reports

Mark Davison scores the winner for RCA from the penalty spot.

For more photos from the match please click here.

Goal scorers - West Auckland Town: Price. Sunderland RCA: Charlton; Davison.

The relatively short journey from Silksworth to West Auckland Town is one of my favourites of the season - a ground that is as quaint as it is quirky, with pleasant views over the County Durham countryside, proper floodlight pylons in all four corners, and a remarkably uneven pitch all adding up to a memorable experience, as day gradually turned to night, and the lights began to take effect. Sunderland RCA, meanwhile, were looking to emulate last season's emphatic 3-0 victory and continue to climb the league table.

RCA made three changes to the side which lost the second epic encounter with Clitheroe last Tuesday - Ross Preston returned in place of the suspended Craig Hodgson, Jordan Watson replaced John Jury, and Colin Larkin returned up front in place of Jonathan Davis, with Nathan O'Neill moving into central midfield.

The two sides lined up as follows:

West Auckland Town: Bland; Hegarty; Price; Snaith; Colquhoun; Cobain; Mitchell; Portas; Fisher (c); Purewal; Dodds.

Sunderland RCA: Pocklington; Lilley; Watson; Preston; Swansbury (c); O'Neill; Charlton; Page; Davison; Larkin; Moan. Subs: Jury; Clayton Davis; Ramshaw; Armstrong; McNab.

Sunderland RCA
Kokoska, Jury, Swansbury, Lilley, Watson; J. Davis, Hodgon, Armstrong, Charlton; Moan Davison.

Ashington
Grant; King, Armstrong, Vipond, Caygill; Bell, Morris, Downey, Frances; Stephenson, Humphries.

A bit of a strange one this, a largely anonymous game with one big and surprising incident, but overall a comfortable win for RCA, with one major downside.

In light of the Clitheroe replay on Tuesday, Swaz left out anybody who wasn’t absolutely 100% so the team had a bit of an unusual look to it, but RCA fans will have been delighted to see captain Greg Swansbury back in the line up after missing a few games. A calculated risk to play Swanna, but clearly he needs game time to get back to his best. In the event he was excellent throughout and must have been very close to being Man of the Match for RCA. Welcome back.

Teams

Clitheroe Town
Wilczynski, Ja Gregory, Thompson, Jefferies, Snowden; Jo Gregory, Hazeldine, Bianga, Wood; Anoruo, Recizac. Subs Daniels, Cannon-Noren, Sloane, not used, Ashforth.

Sunderland RCA
Pocklington, C. Davis, Lilley, Hodgson, McNab, Charlton, Page, Armstrong, Moan, Davison, Larkin. Subs O’Neill, McGuinness, J. Davis.

Attendance: 230

Apologies if this report reads as a little bit unlikely; I was there and I can’t believe it.

Teams

Sunderland RCA
Pocklington, Lilley, McNab, Hodgson, Preston (C), Clayton Davis, Dylan Elliott, Page, Moan, Larkin, Davison. Bench O'Neill, Kokoska, Limbo, Jonathan Davis, McGuinness.

Goals: Davison, Moan

Dunston UTS
Dryden, Marrs, Halliday, Stafford, Grant-Soulsby, Capewell, Thear, Pearson, Fitzpatrick, Heslop, Jack Elliott. Bench: Callum Elliott, Brookes, Hall, Nellis, Haley.

Goals: Heslop, Nellis, Stafford (pen)

Officials

Referee: Mr James Bancroft. Assistant referees: Mr Leonard Thurlow and Mr David Watson.

This was a cracking game between two good sides, clever inventive football, good strikes on goal, powerful challenges and top quality defending; and then a weird ending.

The game kicked off in a blustery wind and was immediately being played at a breathtaking pace. Dunston had the better of the early exchanges playing up the slope and into the breeze, which maybe allowed for more controlled football. The game was played mostly in midfield for the first quarter of an hour, and neither goalkeeper was seriously troubled. In the 16th minute a good move from RCA, as they finally got their passing together, ended with a super Colin Larkin strike which rattled the crossbar. Dunston responded with sustained pressure for a long period, and a number of corners and free kicks enabled them to get dangerous balls into the box, which were mostly dealt with confidently by RCA central defenders Craig Hodgson and Ross Preston and goalkeeper Scott Pocklington. As the half hour was reached RCA began to get more of a grip on the game with Clayton Davis looking dangerous running hard down the right and Dylan Elliott and Luke Page getting their foot on the ball and able to get better passes out wide and into their front men. In the 34th minute, though, Dunston might well have scored as a clever free kick from the corner of the box skimmed the cross bar.