Match reports

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Garstang FC's match report is here.

A lovely little town in rural Lancashire for Sunderland RCA to visit, and a super sports set up right at the head of the High Street, with football, rugby, cricket, bowls and tennis all available to the sports minded of Garstang. The football pitch looked in very good condition although was bound to be a bit slippy with the light rain that was falling on and off, the clubhouse was packed with locals as well as the excellent and noisy RCA following, and all looked set for a classic Vase tie, with RCA clearly favourites but Garstang, enjoying their first ever Vase campaign, well up for keeping their run going. Couldn’t wait!

Garstang FC: Kitchen, Birch, Nagy, O’Connor, Swindlehurst, Sailor, Graham, Entwistle (captain), R. Coar, Hothersall, McKenna. Subs Ross, Barrett

Sunderland RCA: Tsapolos, Jury, McNab, Preston, Swansbury (captain), Hodgson, Moan, Page, Davison, O’Neill, Larkin. Subs Armstrong, Ramshaw, Lilley, K. Davis, C. Davis

Around 200 people were in attendance as the game kicked off in a light drizzle that was to come and go throughout the game. RCA quickly settled into a smooth rhythm, keeping the ball well and moving it around, but without causing too much in the way of problems for the Garstang defence, despite winning a few corners. That changed after 19 minutes as the game burst into life. A Luke Page shot from around 15 yards took a wicked deflection and the Garstang keeper was left completely wrong footed as the ball ballooned into the net. Two minutes later and the advantage was doubled. It had been fairly obvious from the off that the RCA attack had a real advantage in the air and so it proved as a ball into the box was won, and although the keeper did well to parry the effort he could only knock the ball into the path of a diving Nathan O’Neill, who wasn’t likely to miss from around one yard. To their credit the Garstang heads didn’t drop, but playing into the wind and rain and against a dominant RCA midfield they were finding it hard to cross the half way line.

Take cover! RCA captain Greg Swansbury clears the ball during the second half of the match.

For more photos from the match please click here.

Goal scorers - Consett: Cornish; Mackay. Sunderland RCA: Larkin; Davison.

After three successive victories - including last Saturday's narrow Buildbase FA Vase win over Bridlington Town - second-placed Sunderland RCA made the trip to league leaders Consett for this afternoon's mouthwatering top-of-the-table Northern League match.

RCA named an unchanged starting XI and substitutes bench from the win over Bridlington Town last Saturday.

The two sides lined up as follows:

Consett: Hayes; Green; Holden; Smith; Purewal; Wilkinson; Craggs (c); Lawrence; Sweet; Dowson; Mackay. Subs: Lavery; Male; Gray; Colling; Cornish.

Sunderland RCA: Tsapalos; Lilley; McNab; Preston; Swansbury (c); Hodgson; Charlton; Elliott; O'Neill; Page; Larkin. Subs: Davison; Moan; Kyle Davis; Armstrong; Kokoska.

What a performance! Colin Larkin caused Bishops any amount of problems and set up both Nathan O’Neill’s goals.

Please click here for some photos from the match.

For Peter Jackson’s photos please click here.

Bishop Auckland’s match recap, including video, is here.

Bishop Auckland: Liversedge; Hoganson, Marshall, Gibbons; Kyle Patton, Fryatt, Callum Patton, Salmon, Richardson; Johnson, Winn. Subs Robinson, Hart, Twinn.

Sunderland RCA: Tsapalos; Jury, Preston, Swansbury, McNab; Charlton, Elliott, Hodgson, Larkin; O’Neill, Moan. Subs Davison, Kokoska, Page, K. Davis, Armstrong.

An interesting game this looked in prospect. We have had a bit of an Indian sign over Bishop Auckland over the past few seasons, but they looked likely to be a stronger proposition than recently for today’s game. The appointment of Ian Chandler and Brian Rowe as the management team looked a very sound move, and results so far have been much improved, certainly on last season, when for a while relegation looked a real threat.

A decent day if a bit chilly, a pitch which looked an absolute picture and a good crowd in promised well for the match. For RCA the only change saw Colin Larkin start at wide left midfield in place of Clayton Davis. The game started with both sides working hard, but mostly better at stopping the opposition than getting their own attacking game going. Having said that Bishops were clearly edging things in the first twenty minutes and had a number of good positions without finding much to bother Dimi Tsapalos in goal. Dimi dropped one effort early on which excited the crowd, but after that was flawless.

Craig Hodgson clears under pressure. Photograph © Amanda Scaife - @ShildonAFCsup. Thanks very much to Amanda for permission to use her photograph.

Amanda Scaife's photo set from the match is here.

Martyn Tweddle's match photos are here.

Martin Emmerson's photos from the match can be seen here. This was Martin's daughter Astrid's first football match in the Northern League. Come again Astrid and see us win!

Sunderland RCA: Tsapalos; Lilley, McNab, Preston, Swansbury; Hodgson, C. Davis, Page, Moan; O’Neill, Davison; subs Elliott, Kokoska, K. Davis, Jury, Armstrong.

Shildon: Newbrook; Harwood, Curl, Moore, Hall; Carling, Duell, Trotter, Earl; Blackford, Robson; subs Turnbull, Wood, Hird, Hudson, Ellison.

This looked an interesting match up, Shildon are well up the league, but had been on a bad run, with only one win in their last nine games, and RCA were coming off the back of a disappointing and surprising defeat by our local rivals. Both sides with something to prove on the day.

The game started in good conditions, bright sunshine and a decent, but not unmanageable breeze, and at a frantic pace that hardly let throughout the game. RCA were soon on top, but finding it difficult to create good chances. A couple of headers from corners and a decent shout for a penalty for a push on Nathan O’Neill were the highlights of the first 30 minutes, with the game played mainly in midfield and RCA finding the big and strong Shildon back line determined to stand firm. On the break Shildon were always dangerous, with Dan Earl running hard into the corners.