Wednesday night sees regular opponents Chester-le-Street Town visit the Oldhaulage Stadium in the 2nd Round of the Ernest Armstrong Cup and this will be the third time that we have met The Cestrians in the Second Division’s showcase tournament. Back in 2018 we lost 0-2 in the final that was played up in Consett, then, on our own way to winning the trophy in 2022, we knocked Chester out 3-2 at home at the same stage, Konnor Lamb, Rhys McLeod and Joe Thompson on target for RACA. Town beat Grangetown 3-0 on Teesside in this season’s 1st round while we of course despatched neighbours Prudhoe YC 4-1 to earn this last 16 tie, but we’ll need to do much better than we did in the corresponding league game in late September when we were trounced 0-4, our heaviest defeat this season, Ryan Wright (2), Owen Kingsland and Scott Robson were the men on target that day for Town.

Kick off is at 7:30pm but as an extra treat, the PSG v Newcastle United match is on in the clubhouse for a choice of viewing if for some reason you prefer black and white stripes to black and blue ones, United being in some Mickey Mouse Cup apparently. Hope to see you there, Howay the RACA!