RACA made it four wins in a row with a 6-1 win at Easington Colliery in a game played in grim conditions. The first half saw Albion play with the strong wind whipping off the North Sea & horizontal rain behind them & they took maximum advantage of the conditions racing to a 5-0 lead by the interval. It took until the 23rd minute for the deadlock to be broken, Rhys McLeod firing home a low shot past Easington ‘keeper Ant Lowerson, who was to pull off a top class save amid the barrage of first half shots. It was 2-0 just two minutes later as Scott Oldfield opened his account for Ryton with a goal scored from the edge of the box, & Aaron Costello was inevitably on the scoresheet on the half hour mark to increase the advantage. Oliver Symons also got his first goal of the season to make it 4-0 on 35 minutes & Kristian Sands rounded off a five star first half show, netting in stoppage time. While it looked cosy with such an advantage, Albion would face the challenges their hosts had in the first half with no real sign of the wind & rain abating. However Easington were unable to master the conditions as well as RACA, frequently overhitting passes & shots, & while dominating the second half it took until the 66th minute to start the comeback when James Fairley scored directly from a corner to make it 5-1 which was greeted with a bizarre total silence around the Welfare Ground which made the small band of Albion fans wonder if the goal had been chalked off. Any hopes of the Colliers making a comeback were quashed when Costello grabbed his second & RACA’s 6th goal on 68 minutes. For the rest of the game the Albion defence dug deep & held out against constant Easington pressure but that’s 18 goals scored in the last four games with just the one conceded & move back into the top ten with those play-off positions inching closer. For Easington it was a fourth straight loss & they remain just outside the play-offs in 6th place.

FT EASINGTON COLLIERY 1 RACA 6 Attendance 63