Albion went down to a late goal at fellow promotion hopefuls Jarrow at Perth Green this afternoon. It looked like RACA would be seeing out their first goalless draw in 101 games until Ryan Hardie scored an 87th minute winner for the South Tynesiders to give them their sixth league win on the spin.
This game was not one to live long in the memory, the opening minutes being dominated by Jarrow without them really creating anything. Then on 9 minutes came the game’s first talking point. Ryton were awarded a free kick which Rhys McLeod floated into the Jarrow box. Dale Burrell headed across the box for Jack Errington to nod home, but the RACA celebrations were short lived as the linesman flagged for off-side much to the consternation of those in the yellow jerseys. Barely had the visitors finished their protestations when a punt upfield from Jarrow saw the fall bounce to Ryan Hardie who laid on Levi Collins who shot narrowly wide. On the quarter hour mark, Jarrow weren’t far off scoring when a cleared corner fell to Chris Brennan outside the box but his strike went narrowly wide of the cross bar. Again it was the hosts who threatened next, Lutfir Karim heading narrowly wide from a Collins corner in the 22nd minute, but Collins was to come even closer for Jarrow when he saw his 29th minute free kick clip the top of the bar. Albion finally gave Jarrow keeper Jak Wells something to do on 36 minutes when a Fergus Lynch cross was poked goalwards by Matty Harrison forcing Wells to tip the ball over his bar. The second moot point of the half came in the 42nd minute when Jarrow defender Luke Hudson brought down RACA’s Louis Calvert with a two footed lunge, and the Jarrow man can consider himself fortunate only to receive a yellow card from the referee. And that was that for a fairly scrappy first half
HT Jarrow 0 RACA 0
Last seasons’ top scorer in Division 2, Levi Collins, was continuing to launch dangerous free kicks, this time his 61st minute flight into the Ryton box was headed by Ryan Keltie who rose above everyone forcing Brogan Colquhoun to acrobatically push the ball over the bar. Despite Albion shading a second half scarce on goalmouth action, Jarrow should have taken the lead on 78 minutes when Hardie squared across the box to Fin Day who was unmarked in the box, but Joe Groves-Forbes anticipated the danger & ran to the goal line to block Day’s shot on the line. The South Tyneside outfit did finally score, but they left it late, Jonathan Bainbridge lofting a ball forward from half way inside the Ryton half where it was met by the unmarked Hardie who nodded home on 87 minutes to bag the three points. Albion had half a chance to level in stoppage time when Matty Todd got his head onto a cross, but the ball was slightly behind him so couldn’t get the power on the header which Wells gathered safely. So RACA finish off with a league defeat before the cup double header and an uncharacteristic disjoined performance they need out of the system.
FT JARROW 1 RACA 0 Attendance 104
RACA- Colquhoun, Skivington (Groves-Forbes 54), Oldfield, Burrell, Errington, Caygill, Dart, Lynch, Calvert (Todd 84), McLeod (Salim 67), Harrison (Hayton 57).
ENL Pos: 5th.