Albion inflicted Division 2 leaders, Horden’s first league defeat at The Welfare this season with a thrilling 3-2 victory. Nathan Beckham was forced to blood recent signings Luke McCabe and Luke Page in the starting XI, plus had latest signing Michael Baxter, in his third stint at the club, on the bench. Despite falling a goal behind, RACA went into the interval level with a Rhys McLeod goal equaliser, and pushed on in the second half with goals from Louis Calvert and Matty Hayton. Horden made it 3-2 to ensure a nervy ending but Ryton held on for a fine victory

MATCH SUMMARY

RACA finally got to play their first competitive game of 2025 as they travelled to leading side Horden four weeks after the last game, the 1-1 draw at Redcar Town. With Dale Burrell likely out for the rest of the season, debuts were handed to the two Lukes, McCabe and Page. Both sides looked intent on going for it from the whistle & Horden brought a save out of Albion keeper Brogan Colquhoun within 90 seconds of kick off when Chris Wallace shot from the edge of the box following a Taylor Campbell free kick. Ryton reciprocated in the 7^th minute when Louis Calvert, in the middle of some Albion pressure squared the ball to Rhys McLeod who struck the ball low, forcing Craig Foster into a fine save, diving low to push the ball on to his right hand post where it bounced back into his arms. But it was to be the hosts who opened the scoring in the 9^th minute when Craig Hutchinson fired home from close range following a corner that was knocked on by Scott Close. RACA came close to levelling on 20 minutes when breaking forward, Calvert shrugging off the attentions of two defenders to launch a shot that Robson acrobatically tipped over the bar. Four minutes later and the equaliser came following a sweet move involving Matty Hayton, Calvert and McLeod which saw Calvert’s pass dummied by Luke Page and McLeod score his sixth goal of the season with a left footer that rocketed past Robson. The remainder of the half was a high octane end to end affair without any great scares and while Ryton probably shaded it, the Marras were presented with a decent chance with what was to be the last kick of the half. Ben Riding was fouled on the edge of the Albion box & Horden were awarded a free kick which had every Ryton player in defensive mode but Campbell’s free kick proved to be an anti-climax as the ball sailed harmlessly over the bar.

HT Horden CW 1 RACA 1

 RACA got off to a great start to the second half when Jack Errington’s booted clearance on 47 minutes, bounced over two Horden defenders and to the feet of Calvert who sped forward, rounded the keeper and slotted home from an awkward angle despite the efforts of  another two backpedalling defenders. While the hosts were now creating most of the chances, it was RACA who were to extend their lead on 69 minutes when a Luke McCabe free kick was headed on by Page to Hayton who was first to react & blasted home past a statuesque defence to make it 3-1. As Ryton’s exertions began to take their toll, Horden became the dominant side & on 81 minutes they pulled a goal back, Nathaniel Skidmore’s cross-field ball finding Taylor Campbell who volleyed past Colquhoun to put his side firmly back in the game. Campbell almost scored again two minutes later but this time his low drive was pushed out for a corner by Colquhoun. Marras substitute Martin Fowler also had a chance to get his side level on 88 minutes when he ran on to Ben Henderson’s forward ball, but his attempted dink past the advancing Ryton keeper was blocked and held by Colquhoun. A minute from time at the other end, Michael Baxter had half a chance to mark his return to RACA with a goal when he rounded the Horden stopper but the ball ran to an acute angle & his effort went wide. Horden pressed on for the leveller in stoppage time but Albion held out to claim a superb three points in a result that changes the dynamics a little at the top end of the table as Horden drop to third place despite this being only their second defeat of the season.

FT HORDEN CW 1 RACA 2 Attendance 77

RACA- Colquhoun, Skivington, Oldfield, McCabe, Caygill, Errington, McLeod (Hoggins 90), Page, Calvert s/o 90 (Baxter 58), Dart, Hayton (Todd 83)

After almost a month without a competitive game, the last fixture RACA would want is an away trip to the division’s top side, but that’s what Nathan Beckham’s team face on Saturday as they face Horden CW at the Welfare Ground. The ‘Marras’ have lost just one league game out of the twenty nine they’ve played this season & look nailed on to get promoted. The two sides drew 1-1 in the reverse fixture in August, Fergus Lynch netting for Albion, and Ben Henderson, who has also scored in Horden’s last three games, getting the equaliser. We’ve also met in the cup this season with RACA winning our Durham Challenge Cup tie at the Oldhaulage Stadium in October by 2-1, Rhys McLeod & Matty Harrison on target for us and David Doughty getting the goal for the East Durham outfit. Hoping the game goes ahead despite Friday’s forecast of strong winds & if you want to head down the A19 to cheer on the Albion, the address for your sat nav is Welfare Park, 2 Eden St, Horden, Peterlee SR8 4DH. Howay the RACA!!

A date for your diary, we have a new date for our home game v Esh Winning following Saturday’s postponement. It’s been scheduled for Wednesday 19th February with a 7:30pm kick off.

Today’s Northern League fixture against Esh Winning at the Oldhaulage Stadium has fallen foul of the freezing weather after a referee’s inspection.

Details of the date of the re-arranged game will be announced in due course.

RACA host fellow play off hopefuls Esh Winning at the Oldhaulage Stadium on Saturday in a game that hopefully should beat the weather. The Stags recently had the shock of seeing manager Bobby Coltman and assistant Shane Gavin leave the third placed club to join another play off hopeful in Thornaby, the club responding by installing Jonny Swift as player manager for the rest of the season. Like ourselves, Esh Winning haven’t played a competitive game since 28th December and had just seen their promotion push falter a little with two defeats in their last three games, all played at West Terrace. RACA won this season’s encounter there too back in early August with the now departed Matty Harrison netting the only goal of the game. Recent encounters have been very much in Albion’s favour with six of the last seven results going our way, the other being a 3-3 draw. A win for the Albion might well be welcomed by a few other play off hopefuls as it has looked for a while than only one play off place was up for grabs with the top four in the table pulling a little clear, but a home win would pull the Stags back into the mix a little, & more importantly boost our chances of reaching to top 5.

Kick off is 3pm if you can make it, & hopefully you can, to cheer on the lads to a perfect start to 2025. Howay the RACA!

RACA lost 3-4 at Newcastle Blue Star in this mid-season friendly despite leading 3-1 at the interval. Star took the lead on 8 minutes with a Dan Lanning goal but a quickfire Louis Calvert hattrick with goals in the 17th, 21st and 24th minutes had Albion 3-1 up at half time. Blue Star turned the game on its head in the second half with goals from Nathan Kidd (47), Dan Lanning (53 pen) and Liam Clavering (75) to win the encounter.

It was a great opportunity for Manager Nathan Beckham to field the new signings in a combative game and to assess their merits before our league match with Esh Winning on Saturday.

Due to the lack of competitive football due to frozen pitches. Albion have arranged a friendly with Newcastle Blue Star at Scotswood on Tuesday evening with a 7:30pm kick off. The weather is expected to get significantly milder from Sunday so we’re hopeful this game will go ahead. Admission for this game is £1

Unfortunately tomorrow’s game against Yarm & Eaglescliffe has fallen foul of the freezing weather. Details of the date of the re-arranged game will be given as soon as known but we do have a new date for the twice postponed home game v Sunderland RCA which is Wednesday 29th January with a 7:30 kick off

RACA are scheduled to play fellow promotion hopefuls Yarm & Eaglescliffe on Saturday but obviously the game at Bedford Terrace is far from certain to go ahead with freezing conditions forecast over the weekend. If it does beat the weather it would be a second consecutive game on Teesside following our trip to Redcar Town in our final game of 2024. The Eagles are having a fine season, currently in second place in the table in only their second season at this level, and have scored 80 goals (72 in the league) with Tom Atkinson netting an impressive 30 times. Yarm have gone six games unbeaten but like us haven’t played since 28th December when they were held 1-1 by Newcastle University while the two sides met at Kingsley Park in the opening fixture of the season where we ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a Joe Groves-Forbes goal.

If the game’s on & you plan to head down, the post code for Bedford Terrace is TS23 4AE. Howay the RACA!

Unfortunately due to a frozen pitch, tonight’s game against Sunderland RCA has been postponed. Details to follow on the re-arranged game