RACA came from behind at Sunderland West End with new boys Matty Hayton and Morgan Dart announcing their arrival by bagging all three of Albion’s goals & in doing so extended the remarkable run of nine games unbeaten, eight of those being victories.
Albion made the first of two consecutive trips to the Ford Hub to face the regular hosts Sunderland West End with both new signings in the squad, Matty Hayton as no11 & Morgan Dart on the bench. With RACA in scintillating form of late it came as a slight surprise when West End opened the scoring on 18 minutes. Luke Page made a poweful run forward then laid the ball wide to Lewis Charlton whose cross into the box was met by Craig Linsell who wrong footed his marker & fired home to score his fifth goal of the season. It was another Linsell, Adam in the Sunderland goal who was made to work in the 29th minute tipping a dangerous dipping free kick from Declan Bissett over his bar. Daniel Craggs called the West End stopper into action on 36 minutes firing in a shot from distance, but in fairness, Linsell gathered comfortably, despite the shot seemingly taking a slight deflection off a defender. The Wearsiders weren’t too far away from making it 2-0 when awarded a free kick on the edge of the Ryton box in the 43rd minute. Tom Goundry struck the ball low and hard, it fizzing just the wrong side of the post from his perspective, although keeper Brogan Colquhoun didn’t look to concerned that the shot was goalbound. Colquhoun was forced into a save just before the interval when another Page run forward culminated in him laying off a good pass to Linsell whose attempted lob over the stopper was pushed out for a corner.
HT Sunderland West End 1 RACA 0
In an early portent of things to come, Louis Calvert had the ball in the West End net after a minute of the second half but it was rightly chalked off for off-side, but just three minutes later he was on-side when Dylan Lawson took advantage of some dithering in the Sunderland defence & poked the ball forward to Calvert, but he shot wide with just Linsell to beat albeit from an awkward angle. Linsell had more to do on 51 minutes, pushing away a useful Craggs free kick out for a corner. Albion did get on level terms on 55 minutes when Linsell could only parry a Lawson shot to the feet of debutant Matty Hayton who blasted home from close range to open his account for Ryton. There were strong calls for a Sunderland penalty and a red card when Colquhoun brought down Craig Linsell on the edge of the box, but the RACA keeper was fortunate only to be given a yellow & West End had to make do with a free kick. On the hour mark, Albion should have taken the lead when Matty Todd found the unmarked Declan Bissett, but the RACA number 10 could only sky his shot over the bar. Hayton tested Adam Linsell again with a fine strike following good work down the right wing from Joe Groves-Forbes, the keeper diving to push the ball out for another Albion corner. Another Lawson-Hayton combo saw the latter fire narrowly wide in the 78th minute & two minutes later Linsell had to smother a Lawson shot from close range. Morgan Dart was brought on for his debut & made an almost instant impact scoring on 84 minutes having been set up by Calvert to put RACA 2-1 up after finding himself in space inside the box. Sunderland’s best effort for an equaliser a trundling shot from distance from Taylor Ford which while on target, was an easy gather for Colquhoun. Dart wasn’t finished with his contribution and got his double top in the 89th minute, taking advantage of slack defending to slot home Matty Harrison’s head flick to keep the successful run going. If he can keep this ratio of goals to minutes played up, we’re on to a good thing! Albion stay in 4th place despite the win.
FT SUNDERLAND WEST END 1 RACA 3 Attendance 60
RACA- Colquhoun, Groves-Forbes, Ledger, Burrell (Lawson 36), Errington capt (Caygill 90), Oldfield, Lynch, Craggs, Calvert (Harrison 86), Bissett (Dart 81), Hayton (Todd 76).
ENL Pos: 4th.