Sunderland Sunday League
Sunday 1 March 2009
RCA were forced to field a weakened team, with veteran Paul Cooke having to make his first start at centre half and only one sub available. Despite this RCA started brightly, going in at half time with a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Willie Crew strike after 25 mins.
The second half saw Redhouse kicking down the slope and exerting pressure without ever looking as if they would break RCA down, with the outstanding Phil Hall, playing just in front of a back three, not allowing anything to get to their nippy forwards. However Phil, just returned fron major knee surgery, suffered a dead leg with 15 minutes remaining and had to come off. This led to major re-organisation, which disrupted RCA for a while. Redhouse took advantage to score twice in a minute to take the lead 2-1. RCA tried in vain to respond, but just did not have the manpower or luck to grab what would have been a deserved equaliser.