Albion made it six wins from seven games with a hard fought 2-1 win over Redcar Town despite being well off their best form. All the goals came in the first half, Jack Errington & Fergus Lynch scoring for RACA with Chris Dickinson netting from the penalty spot for Town. The win moves Ryton up to third place in the table.
On a perfect moonlit night for a football match, Ryton made it six wins and a draw from the last seven games against an out of form Redcar Town. This wasn’t a classic despite the strips resembling the Milan derby, more like two industrious sides giving it their all without much in the way of end product. It was the Teessiders who created the first key chance on 16 minutes when a Jack Chapman free kick was flicked on by Chris Dickinson to Matthew Crossen who’d crept into the box but he put his flick from close range narrowly wide. So it was to be Ryton who’d break the deadlock with a goal as scruffy as they come. A 24th minute Rhys McCloud corner was flicked on by Daniel Craggs into a mass of players, Jack Errington shooting goalward into the melee & somehow the ball found its way into the net with a suspicion of own goal about it but the RACA captain was credited with his second goal of the season. Redcar should have levelled the score just two minutes later when a cross across the box from the right wing was missed by everyone except Foster Garton, but his shot was cleared off the line by Albion defender Josh Skivington. Dickinson wasn’t too far off with a speculative shot from distance in the 32nd minute, but he was to get on the scoresheet five minutes later from the penalty spot after Oli Locker was brought down in the RACA box by Errington, making no mistake with his strike. However parity only lasted six minutes when an Abu Salim cross was beautifully headed home by Fergus Lynch giving Redcar keeper Michael Algie no chance & ensuring Albion went into the interval ahead.
The second half had lots of huffing & puffing but was typified by fouls & injuries rather than goalscoring chances with neither keeper being inconvenienced too much by the opposing forwards, the exception being Algie’s top drawer one handed save from a Louis Calvert strike on 79 minutes that could have wrapped up the points for RACA. Other than that it was a case of Albion keeping Redcar at bay and keeping the surge up the table in full swing with another three points.
FT RACA 2 REDCAR TOWN 1 Attendance 212
RACA- Colquhoun, Skivington, Ledger (Walker 62), Lynch, Oldfield, Errington, Craggs, McLeod, Calvert (Lawson 82), Salim (Bisset 76), Groves-Forbes (Todd 75)
ENL Pos: 3rd.