FT DURHAM UNITED 2 RACA 1 Attendance 42
Albion let a 1-0 lead slip at a frosty Maiden Castle as Durham United turned the game on its head with two late goals to win the first completed fixture between the two sides. Louis Anderson’s 57th minute lob looked to see RACA extend the winning run to 4 games, but the Students struck back with a goal from Seb Hopkins plus an o.g. to take all three points.
MATCH SUMMARY
Albion travelled to Maiden Castle on a cold and frosty evening to replay the match abandoned following Jack Salkeld’s horror injury. In front of an understandably sparse crowd it was the visitors who created the first chance when Rhys McLeod picked up a stray ball, a pattern to be repeated throughout the game, stormed forward & found Callum Johnston out wide & his shot while full of venom, cleared the Durham bar. In an early period scant on goalmouth action, it was RACA who produced the next move of note & once again it was McLeod the creator. He found Louis Calvert who in turn played the ball wide to Johnston & this time his shot was on target, stinging the palms of United keeper Patrick Dixon whose parry was picked up by Calvert but he was crowded out by a posse of defenders & the ball was eventually played out to safety. Having lost Elliott Clarke to a nasty head injury, Durham were on the back foot again on 38 minutes, McLeod this time bringing a save out of Dixon before defender Maximillian Nissim blasted the ball in the face of Seb Chambers, the man who had replaced Clarke, in an attempted clearance flooring the substitute. This fixture was getting a worrying trend of injuries if no goals, but Chambers would be OK to continue. For all Durham’s absence of creating anything in the first 45 minutes, they burst into life in stoppage time, Jakob Routledge finally getting a shot on target two minutes into stoppage time, quickly followed by another from Oliver Dixon which Callum Corkhill blocked. Then just before the whistle, Corkhill made a triple save with his feet from Harry Stewart, Seb Chambers and Hamza Rob respectively & the Ryton goal remained intact, the sides going into the break goalless.
HT Durham United 0 RACA 0
Albion also started this half the brighter of the two sides & deservedly took the lead on 57 minutes when Scott Oldfield pumped the ball upfield to Louis Anderson who despite being flanked by two defenders, saw Dixon off his line & coolly lobbed the keeper to put his side ahead. Barely two minutes later Calvert could have made it 2-0 when he latched on to an Anderson cross but could only put his header over the bar. Albion were to rue not pressing home the advantage as the Students began to dominate the latter stages of the game & Seb Hopkins took full advantage of a partial clearance from the Albion defence,curling the ball beyond Corkhill on 77 minutes. It was to get worse for Ryton on 84 minutes when a cross from Nissim looking for Hopkins on the far post was intercepted by the luckless Kurtis Dodds who could only divert the ball into his own net for what would prove to be the winning goal.
FT DURHAM UNITED 2 RACA 1
Albion’s mini winning spree comes to an end but they remain in 9th place, this the seventh game in a row where RACA have either won or lost by the odd goal. As a side note, Durham United were Ryton’s 65th different Northern League opponent since joining the league.
RACA– Corkhill, Beesley, Oldfield, Lynch (Whittaker 83), Dodds, Hayton, McLeod (Hyde 68), Skivington, Anderson, Calvert (Groves-Forbes 62), Johnston (Fletcher 78). Unused Substitute- Driver