Horden Community Welfare are RACA’s next opponents at Kingsley Park on Saturday & despite their mixed start to the season, this will likely be a tough test for the Black & Blues. Last season RACA only failed to score in three games & two of those were against The Marras, a 0-1 reverse at home in the opening game of the 23/24 campaign, & a 0-2 reverse on the East Durham coast. Indeed we’ve lost our last five games against Horden conceding 17 with only 3 goals scored in return.

That said, we sit two points & three places above Jonny Payne’s men who have comfortably beaten Newcastle University and Billingham Town, drawn with Darlington Town & in their last game, lost at Chester-le-Street Town in their four matches to date. David Doughty leads the way in their goalscoring stakes with four goals so far, but six other players have a goal each as Horden are joint second in the goalscoring stakes in Division 2.

Nathan will be hoping his charges start the match the way we finished against Billingham Town on Wednesday & preserve the 100% home record with three wins from three. Kick off is at the usual 3pm & hope you can be the 12th man again in this much anticipated match.

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RACA 2 BILLINGHAM TOWN 1

RACA left it late to comeback from a goal down to grab all three points against Billingham Town with late goals from Abu Salim on 82 minutes & Dale Burrell on 88 minutes to move up to third place in the table.

It was the visitors who started the brighter in the game & really should have been ahead on 6 minutes when Harry Close outpaced his two markers but managed to screw his shot wide with only keeper Brogan Colquhoun to beat. Close & John Stephenson in particular were livewires for Town in the first half, although the next chance of note fell to Albion when following good work on the right wing from Joe Groves-Forbes resulted in Matthew Harrison forcing a good save out of Blues keeper Paul Roddam. It was the visitors who were to go interval ahead courtesy of a 32nd minute goal from Stephenson following a quick break forward, Alfie Turnbull providing the crucial through ball to the number 9 who slotted home for a deserved 1-0 half time lead.

RACA were far more potent after the interval & asserted more as the game wore on, Declan Bissett striking the woodwork on 67 minutes following a period of sustained pressure on the Teessiders’ goal. The equaliser did come in 82 minutes following a corner, when Harrison head flicked the ball into the crowded six yard box & substitute Abu Salim headed home. This spurred the home side on and should have taken the lead on 85 minutes when Dale Burrell beat two defenders & played a low ball across the box where Harrison only had to tap into an empty net but to Billingham’s relief, he got his legs in a tangle & the defence were able to clear the ball. However the respite was only brief as Ryton snatched a late winner in the 88th minute, Harrison flicking the ball on to Burrell who volleyed home from close range to trigger jubilant scenes among the home support.

FT RACA 2 BILLINGHAM TOWN 1 Attendance 210

Two wins out of two at home & up to third place with another home game on Saturday

RACA– Colquhoun, Groves-Forbes (Symons 85), Ledger, Grieveson, Burrell, Errington (capt) Walker (Skivington 65), Luke (Lawson 74), Harrison, Bisset (Adotey 80), Todd (Salim 58).

ENL Pos: 3rd

As the games come thick and fast at the start of the season, Albion’s next game is at home on Wednesday night with Billingham Town our opposition. Town have won one & lost two of their opening three games, losing the opener at Bedford Terrace 2-1 to Esh Winning in front of a bumper 434 spectators. They then won 4-2 at Sunderland RCA before Friday night’s 6-1 thumping off Horden. Top scorers for Town this season with two goals each are Joe Bennett & Jamie Owens & as for our top scorer last season, Aaron Costello; well he’s served his three match ban but is unlikely to feature due to injury.

Last season’s game between the sides here saw us win 3-1 with goals from Kristian Sands, Aaron Costello and Abu Salim, so a repeat of that result will do nicely. Kick off is at 7:30pm, hope to see another good attendance at Kingsley Park after a good show of 253 last Saturday.

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RACA’s fine recent form against Esh Winning continued in a largely uneventful game at West Terrace. Manager Nathan Beckham made four changes from Wednesday night’s starting eleven but his side barely laid a glove on the Stags’ goal in the first half, though the hosts created very little themselves.

The second half picked up a bit & Albion almost took the lead on 57 minutes when recent signing Matthew Harrison beat his defensive marker & fired in a shot from a difficult angle, his effort beating Esh keeper Harry Alderson, but the ball crashed off the far post and away to safety. The 64th minute saw two key events which ended up deciding the outcome of the game. Firstly Stags forward Charlie Twinn was quick to react to a Ryton defensive mix up, picking up the loose ball but firing just wide, then from the goal kick, Albion pushed forward & Harrison was on hand to score his first goal for his new club which proved to be the winner. Thereafter the hosts never looked like equalising & RACA saw out the rest of the game to inflict a fifth successive victory over Esh.

FT ESH WINNING 0 RACA 1 Attendance 113

RACA- Colquhoun, Grieveson, Ledger, Burrell, Lynch, Errington (capt), Walker, Luke (Skivington 88), Harrison (Salim 80), Bissett (Lawson 70), McLeod (Todd 60).

ENL Pos: 7th

This month’s lucky winners are-

1st prize No 51 S Lawson who wins £100

2nd Prize No85 L Scott who wins £75

3rd Prize No 14 J Gardener who wins £25

Well done to our three winners, if you’d like to take part in this monthly fundraiser from just £5 a month, please contact us via the usual channels on the foot of the homepage. Thank-you

Nathan Beckham hasn’t long to wait to try and get his side back on the winning trail with a trip to Waterhouses tomorrow to face early pace setters Esh Winning. The Stags are one of only two sides with a 100% record, Jarrow being the other, after two second division games having won both their games 2-1, away to Billingham Town & at home to Chester le Street Town. Unlike Essity Park, RACA have a good recent record at West Terrace, winning on our last three visits there, & having won five and drawn one of our last six meetings with Esh. Last season’s trip saw us pick up our first away points of the season with a 3-2 win, Lee Waugh netting twice & Fergus Lynch scoring the other goal, so let’s hope history repeats itself tomorrow. Aaron Costello sits out the third & final game of his ban while Thomas Armstrong, who is dual registered with Killingworth and Matthew Harrison from Division 2 rivals Jarrow are the latest signings for the club.

If you want to head down to the scenic WindowsPlusRoofs Arena to cheer on the Albion, the address is West Terrace, Waterhouses, Esh Winning, County Durham, DH7 9BQ

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY 3 RACA 1

Albion’s recent poor record against the University continued with a flat performance at Essity Park last night. Since beating them in the Ernest Armstrong Cup final at the end of the 21/22 season, we’ve picked up a solitary point against the Students in our five games since. RACA started brightly enough but gradually the Uni took control, opening the scoring on 31 minutes when Dominic Griffin crossed the ball from the touchline to James Kelly who slotted home from close range. It was Griffin’s turn to get on the scoresheet on 41 minutes, latching on to a Ben Holland pass to give the hosts a 2-0 lead at the interval.

Any hopes of a swift comeback were dashed on 51 minutes when Tom Iverson made it 3-0 firing home from a Joel Manning ball to stun the large RACA contingent in the 191 attendance, four times the figure the University pulled in on Saturday against Horden. Fortunately, that was as bad as it got for Albion in the match as Rhys McLeod opened his account for the season just two minutes later following a pass from Saturday’s scorer Joe Groves-Forbes. As the game wore on, a galvanised RACA increasingly pushed on for a second goal but despite camping in the University box for the last ten minutes, the requisite goals wouldn’t come & Ryton fell to their first defeat of the new season.

FT NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY 3 RACA 1 Attendance 191

RACA– Colquhoun, Symons (Todd 60), Ledger, Skivington (Craggs 47) Errington (captain), Burrell, Lynch (Luke 69), Groves-Forbes, Salim (Harrison 57), McLeod, Bissett (Walker 65)

ENL Pos: 13th

RACA make the short trip to Prudhoe on Thursday night to face Newcastle University in our first away trip of the campaign. The Uni got off to a bad start on Saturday losing 0-3 at home to Horden, and it’s a good time to play them as many of their prospective players are still away from Tyneside for the summer holidays. We’ll need to improve on last season’s efforts against the Students as they did the double over us winning 3-2 at Essity Park and 5-3 at Kingsley Park. In fact in the very unofficial ‘Tyne Valley Cup’ which only took into account games between ourselves the University & Prudhoe YC we were tailed off last in that, Prudhoe winning that particular round robin despite being the lowest finishing team in the league table proper where it really counts. For those interested, the final positions were-

1st Prudhoe YC P4 W2 D2 L0 F9 A5 Pts 8

2nd Newcastle Uni P4 W2 D1 L1 F9 A8 Pts 7

3rd RACA P4 W0 D1 L3 F9 A14 Pts 1

Aaron Costello is still suspended so won’t feature but there are no expected absentees from the available squad we had on Saturday & it’s hoped that new signing Matthew Harrison will be available. Kick off at Essity Park is at 7:30pm & if you’ve not been to the ground before, the postcode is NE42 5EH. Hope to see a few in black and blue at the game.

RACA 1 YARM & EAGLESCLIFFE 0 (Attendance 253)

Albion got the new season off to a winning start with a narrow 1-0 win over Yarm & Eaglescliffe thanks to a 13th minute goal from stand in centre forward Joe Groves-Forbes. RACA dominated the early exchanges with some neat passing with the ball spending most of those early minutes deep in the Eagles’ half. What proved to be the winning goal was scored by Groves-Forbes when he raced into the opposition box, latching on to cross from the left flank, evaded a slide tackle & rounded keeper Ethan Landsell before slotting home into an empty net. The goal seemed to galvanise the visitors as the game became more even as Ryton were drawn into a more direct approach to the game which Yarm coped better with & looked like levelling on 36 minutes when a powerful header was directed towards the RACA goal, but Brogan Colquhoun pulled off a fine one handed save to deny the Teessiders & Albion went into the interval a goal up.

The second half was a more stop-start affair with referee Zak Logue’s whistle being kept busy with a number of niggly fouls & the visitors lost a man to a 10 minute stint in the sin bin on 72 minutes which helped Albion see out the game & make a winning start to the campaign. For what it’s worth we’re in joint 8th in the embryonic Second Division League table. A healthy attendance of 253 which was the third highest in the division today & Charlie Grieveson was nominated MOTM for Albion. Next up is the short trip to Prudhoe on Thursday night to face Newcastle University at Essity Park who suffered a 0-3 home reverse to Horden CW today.

RACA: Colquhoun, Grieveson, Ledger, Skivington (Walker 81), Errington (captain), Burrell, Lawson (Salim 46), Lynch (Craggs 60), Groves-Forbes, Bisset (Todd 78), McLeod (Symons 85).

ENL Pos: 8th

Tomorrow we welcome Yarm & Eaglesciffe to Kingsley Park as the 24/25 season kicks off at Kingsley Park.

Many around The Albion are quietly optimistic about RACA’s chances this season & expect a higher finish than last season’s 11th place given the quality of the squad, the latest players to sign up being Charlie Grieveson, and Aaron Carr.

Yarm will also have high hopes in this their second season in the Northern League following promotion from the North Riding League at the end of the 22/23 season. It was a case of home comforts in last season’s matches as the Eagles won 2-1 at Bedford Terrace in August, while RACA won our home match 3-1 in September, Richie Hoggins bagging a brace with Daniel Craggs scoring the other.

Not that you can read too much into pre-season friendlies but Y&E had a good pre-season culminating in a 3-1 victory at first division Seaham Red Star so they’ll be optimistic as they make the long trip north.

Kick off is the usual 3pm, we’re a bit light on the ground with match day staff due to holidays so if you can lend a hand in any way please get to the ground early & make yourself known! Look forward to seeing you at HQ if you can make it.

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