Billingham Town handed out another thumping to RACA cruising to a 6-0 win at Bedford Terrace in what is Albion’s highest margin of defeat this season. RACA have now lost five league & cup games on the spin now & drop down to 7th place in the table having being overtaken by Prudhoe YC.
Match Summary
Albion faced a last minute goalkeeping crisis before the trip to Teesside with regular keeper Brogan Colquhoun having to withdraw at the 11th hour for family reasons, a the manager’s cousin Ryan Beckham hurriedly signed on the Friday.
The opening quarter of an hour was quite even but the Billingham began to dominate although it was the home keeper Matthew Wilkinson who was called into serious action first, in the 22nd minute when Albion’s Matty Harrison drilled in a powerful shot from distance which Wilkinson dived down low to push to safety. Town did open scoring on 35 minutes when a log ball wasn’t dealt with by the RACA defence, the ball falling to Dale Hopson who fired the ball across the box & Kieran Stares tapped the ball home to open his account for Town this season. Four minutes later and it was 2-0, Stares the provider with an accurate up and under to John Stephenson who shrugged off the attentions of two defenders to slot past Beckham.
HT Billingham Town 2 RACA 0
The second half was only four minutes old when the Blues made it 3-0, Stephenson turned his marker inside out & crossed the ball to Stares who rose the highest to nod home. Albion did create a half chance in 53 minutes when Matty Todd brought another save out of Wilkinson pushing the ball out for a corner. But it was more calamitous defending from Ryton on the hour mark, Lucas Pilling drilled the ball across the box & no-one in a yellow shirt could get a decisive touch. Hopson saw his shot saved by Beckham but the ball fell to Stares who tapped home to complete his hattrick. Harry Close made it 5-0 on 70 minutes, once again taking advantage of weak defending to slide his shot home. More comedy defending led the sixth goal for Town, Close picking up a stray ball played across the box for another tap in. So Town score six in consecutive home games while RACA put in one of their worst performances in a few seasons.
FT BILLINGHAM TOWN 6 RACA 0 Attendance 262
RACA- Beckham, Groves-Forbes (Craggs 66), Ledger (Lawson 65), Burrell (Cairns 70), Lynch, Oldfield, Dart, Todd, Hayton, Skivington, Harrison (Wilson 50).