FT GRANGETOWN BC 4 RACA 1
Albion fell to a shock heavy defeat at Grangetown in the final league game ending the six game unbeaten run & succumbing to the Teesside outfit for the first time. A Jake Williams-Muthana hattrick in the opening half hour set the hosts on their way before Paul Young gave some Love to the Common People of TS6 with a fourth goal on 64 minutes. Louis Calvert got a sole consolation 2 minutes later but Ryton will need a much better performance on Tuesday night.
MATCH REPORT
Albion brought down the curtain on the league campaign at Grangetown and on current form must have fancied extending the unbeaten sequence to seven games against a side in the lower reaches of the table but safe from the drop. Those hopes were given a massive jolt within a minute when Grangetown’s Ben Urwin floated in a cross to the far post in the Ryton box where Jake Williams-Muthana was on hand to slide in & poke the ball home. Urwin himself had half a chance to double his side’s advantage in the 11th minute when the ball from a corner landed at his feet but he scuffed his shot wide. Urwin was in the thick of the action again on 14 minutes when he took advantage of an ‘after you Claude’ moment between Albion keeper Callum Corkhill and defender Danny Diver, nipping in and shooting towards goal, but fortunately for RACA, the shot trundled just wide of the post. Ryton’s defensive disarray proved more costly in the 17th minute when Boysie captain Oscar Mahoney bustled between two Albion players and poked a hopeful ball into the box. Stand-in defender Morgan Dart’s attempt to put the ball out to safety only succeeded in setting up Williams–Muthana who slotted home past the advancing Corkhill to make it 2-0. While Sam Pinnegar was having a comfortable afternoon in the Grangetown goal, Corkhill found himself exposed again in the 27th minute when a break from the home side saw Williams-Muthana bursting forwards but his attempted lob to Alex Carr who was in acres of space near the far post ready for a tap in, was deflected by Dart for a corner. The half hour mark saw the hosts make it 3-0 when Fam Jatta played the ball to Urwin who in turn found Williams-Muthata & in a carbon copy of his second goal, completed his first half hattrick by slotting past Corkhill leaving defenders trailing in his wake. There was to be no further scoring in the first half, but Ryton went into the interval with much to ponder.
HT Grangetown BC 3 RACA 0
The second half started quieter than the first, though Williams-Muthana might have scored a fourth from a 53rd minute drop ball, his cross taking an awkward bounce in front of Corkhill then clipping the crossbar before being booted to safety. But it was to get worse for Albion on 64 minutes when Corkhill punched a ball from a corner to the edge of the box where it was knocked back into the danger area, where Mahoney found Paul Young after some leg bagatelle & Young laid his hat on the ball & made it 4-0. RACA did finally raise a response three minutes later when a ball was launched up to Callum Johnston who laid to to Louis Calvert who elected to shoot from distance, his fine strike beating substitute keeper Joseph Hood, extending his sequence of scoring in six of the last seven games. The four goal cushion was almost restored straight from the kick off, Mahoney spotting Corkhill off his line & trying an audacious lob from a few yards in the Ryton half. While the effort was on target, Corkhill was able to scramble back and push the ball out for a corner. For all RACA were better after the interval, winning several corners, they didn’t look like scoring until Dart’s 90th minute strike that Hood pushed over the bar. So RACA suffered their second heaviest defeat of the season on Teesside, but the big one is on Tuesday where surely there will be a better performance then.
FT GRANGETOWN BC 4 RACA 1
RACA- Corkhill, Beesley, Dart, Skivington (Lynch 76), Hayton (Ord 81), Driver, Lawson (Hyde 61), Bewley (Adotey 74), Calvert, Johnston, Groves-Forbes. Substitute Not Used Bailey
Saturday’s Other Division 2 Final Day Results
AFC Newbiggin 4 (Lizinde, Nelson, Smith 2) Boldon CA 1 (Whitfield)
Chester-le-Street Town 0 Alnwick 1 (Bright)
Darlington Town 0 Redcar Town 3 (McMichael, Thornton, Robinson-Coley)
FC Hartlepool 3 (Appleby, Bayes, Smith) Sunderland RCA 0
Jarrow 3 (Hardie, Barber, Karim) Esh Winning 0
Newcastle University 2 (Iverson, Kelly) Billingham Synthonia 4 (Healey, Evans, Marsay, Raby)
Tow Law Town 0 Seaham Red Star 0
Yarm & Eaglescliffe 2 (Atkinson, Marshall) Billingham Town 1 (Mitchell)