RACA earned their most emphatic league win for over 19 years when comfortably despatching a youthful Esh Winning side 8-0 at the Oldhaulage Stadium. In a rampant first half Albion were 6-0 up at the interval with a brace each from Declan Bissett and Louis Calvert, a goal from Fergus Lynch and a Louis Anderson penalty on the stroke of half time. To Esh Winning’s credit they plugged on in the second half, snuffing out the Ryton attacks & looked to maybe finish the game without conceding another goal, but a late comical o.g. and a superb goal from a Bisset free kick in stoppage time denied the young Stags of that milestone as Ryton equalled the 8-0 they beat Sunderland RCA by in the Northern League fixture at Kingsley Park back in August 2006. Albion move up to 13th place with the win.
MATCH SUMMARY
RACA were aiming to pick up their first points on a Saturday this season as they welcomed Esh Winning to the Tyne Valley for their 39th competitive match since Ryton’s elevation to the Northern League, our most regular opponents in that time. Albion had new signing Alfie Ord on the bench, younger brother of Dan as well as veteran Daniel Craggs for the first time this term. The Stags were bang out of form & it took only four minutes for their goalkeeper Patrick Crombie to get an inkling of the afternoon he’d be facing when Declan Bisset picked up a stray clearance & drove a powerful shot which Crombie was equal to, pushing the ball out for a corner. Esh’s James Bower made what was to be a rare Stags incursion into the RACA box making a fine 11th minute run down the left wing before cutting in, only to find Jack Salkeld’s intervening foot blocking his close range effort. Albion took the lead on 18 minutes, Bisset picking up a partial clearance, turning his marker & striking the ball sweetly past the outstretched hands of Crombie to get his first goal of the season. The Esh stopper was called into action on 23 minutes when Louis Anderson after some keepy-ups in the Stags box, found Louis Calvert unmarked but his low shot was well saved by Crombie before being booted to safety. After a few minutes a relative calm before the storm, RACA doubled the lead on 34 minutes when the ball from an Esh punt forward was returned to the Esh half, where Calvert curled in his first of the season past Crombie. The Stunned Stags were to fall further behind in the 38th minute, Albion again taking advantage of a clearance blocked by Bisset that led to some intricate play from the men in black & blue ending in Calvert finding Bisset who dinked the ball home from a tight angle. A minute later it was 4-0 when an Esh Winning attack broke down and the ball was thumped upfield to Calvert who despite the attention of two defenders, had the composure to nod the ball down before sweeping the ball first time past Crombie. The Albion faithful in the 195 attendance had barely stopped clapping when it was 5-0. Good work on the left flank by Jack Elliott saw him nip across the touchline and lay the ball to Anderson who due to the close attention of Esh’s Brandon Fort, tapped it to Fergus Lynch whose daisy cutter might just have taken a slight deflection off Esh skipper Jonathan Swift, deceiving Crombie & trickling into the net, & Lynch was also off the mark for 2025/26. There was room for a sixth goal before the half was done, this time from the penalty spot when Crombie was adjudged to have brought down Anderson as he ran past him. Anderson took the spot kick himself slotting home to make it a staggering 6-0 with half the game still to play.
HT RACA 6 Esh Winning 0
Albion took up where they left off, Calvert bringing another good save out of Crombie on 48 minutes with a powerfully struck shot. Elliott came as close to scoring as he would in the 57th minute, dispossessing an opponent & pairing up with Calvert who fed the ball back to Elliott who’d run half the length of the field only to put his lob wide. Esh created a chance on the hour mark, Michael Harland & Bower combining but with just the Ryton keeper to beat, Bower put his shot wide. Bisset was close to getting his hattrick when he struck a 67th minute free kick on target, but Crombie was able to push the effort away, but in the following melee in the box and a Bisset shot, only a valiant goal line block from Esh Winning substitute Callum Moore prevented a seventh goal from being conceded. Ryton had a claim for a penalty waived away in the 76th minute when Anderson & Crombie had another coming together & with the keeper stranded on the floor, the ball broke to Albion sub Noah Adotey but his shot was cleared off the line by Alex White. To the credit of the Esh young side they were snuffing out the Ryton attacks far more effectively in the second period & when Crombie denied Adotey with an 89th minute save, they could be forgiven for thinking they’d kept RACA at bay in the second half. But when your luck is out…..a Josh Skivington free kick caused mayhem in the Esh box, the ball bouncing off an assortment of players before two Esh defenders went for the same header & the luckless Moore nodded into his own net. The 8th & final goal goal two minutes later was the total opposite as Bisset curled in a beauty to notch his hattrick & equal the club’s best result in over 19 years.
FT RACA 8 ESH WINNING 0 Attendance 195
RACA– Corkhill, Salkeld (A Ord 84), Skivington, Lynch (Cairns 70), Dodds, D Ord (Scott 79), Elliott (Adotey 66), Luke, Anderson, Bisset, Calvert. Unused sub- Craggs
Saturday’s Other Division 2 Results
Billingham Town 3 (Stares 2, Hutchinson) Durham United 2 (Kay, o.g)
Chester le Street Town 1 (Nelson) AFC Newbiggin 1 (Bell)
Darlington Town 2 (Dixon 2) Jarrow 0
FC Hartlepool 1 (McGee) Yarm & Eaglescliffe 0
Grangetown BC 1 (Eglinton) Newcastle University 1 (Morris)
Park View 0 Sunderland West End 3 (Norton, Benali 2)
Prudhoe YC 0 Redcar Town 1 (Clark)
Seaham Red Star 2 (Appleby, Burton) Boldon CA 2 (Heywood 2)
Sunderland RCA 0 Alnwick Town 0
Tow Law Town 2 (Alderson, Tomlinson) Billingham Synthonia 3 (Webb, Riley, Lawrence)