FT RACA 0 REDCAR TOWN 1 Attendance 135
A first half penalty from Redcar’s McCorie Carmichael was enough to condemn RACA to a sixth home defeat as the league leaders hung on for the three points in a game where chances were at a premium, partly due to the heavy pitch that had made a remarkable recovery from the Prudhoe game. Despite the visitors going down to 10 men, Albion just couldn’t make the breakthrough to salvage something from the game.
MATCH SUMMARY
Albion’s first December fixture couldn’t have been much tougher as table toppers Redcar Town, unbeaten on the road were the advent visitors. Nathan Beckham gave Dylan Lawson his first start of the season & in goal for his first league game was Tom White while Glenn Caygill made a welcome return to the bench following his lengthy injury. On an unsurprisingly heavy pitch it was a cagey start with neither side creating much up front. The first action to stir the 135 spectators was an 11th minute shot from Ryton’s Louis Anderson having being set up by Louis Calvert that wasn’t too far wide but didn’t unduly trouble Town keeper Will Cowey. There was drama just outside of the RACA box on 15 minutes when White storming out of his box to intercept a ball, ploughed into his teammate Craig Scott leaving the latter needing treatment but fortunately both players were able to resume the game. Pretty much from the restart, Anderson chanced his arm from far out on the left flank but his powerful effort crashed into the side netting. Redcar had a half hearted claim for a penalty in the 27th minute when McCorie Carmichael went down in the box & while he appeared to hurt his neck in the tumble, he went down rather easily & referee Matthew Davison waved play on. However Carmichael was to have his penalty on 39 minutes when he was brought down by Danny Driver on the edge of the box & Mr Davison awarded the spot kick. Carmichael dusted himself down & slotted his penalty home to score his 7th goal of the season. There was some late action at either end, firstly on 44 minutes a Matthew Garbutt corner led to a shot from Mustapha Abdullahi being blocked by a sea of Ryton legs while at the other end, an Anderson cross caused panic in the Steelmen’s defence, Joe Bennett’s clearance going up vertically & when Cowey fumbled the ball as it came down, the referee deemed that was due to an infringement and blew for a free kick much to the annoyance of the home fans.
HT RACA 0 Redcar Town 1
Town were the first to create a chance in the second half on 51 minutes, when following a Carmichael lay off, Abdullahi fizzed a cross into the RACA box which got deflected to safety. A minute later and Albion’s Callum Johnston sped upfield on a break & unleashed a powerful shot that Cowey was pleased to see go just the wrong side of the post. Albion came so close to an equaliser on 56 minutes when Calvert saw his shot saved by Cowey, the ball then landing to Johnston whose shot was saved on the line by the head of Jayden Sekete who was down on all fours. Despite the loud claims for hand ball Mr Davison further endeared himself to the RACA faithful by awarding a corner, but the video evidence albeit from distance, did suggest it was the defender’s head that made contact with the ball. Albion were thrown a lifeline when Town defender Matthew Garbutt was dismissed on 67 minutes, given a straight red card following a dangerous tackle. Thereafter Albion huffed and puffed as they pressed for the equaliser but the Steelmen held firm as they collected the points & pulled three points clear at the top of the table as a result.
FT RACA 2 REDCAR TOWN 1
On the face of it a narrow defeat to the league leaders isn’t too bad a result but not fully capitalising on having a man advantage for a quarter of the game to at least grab a point left those of black & blue persuasion a little disappointed at full time.
RACA– White, Beesley, Oldfield, Skivington, Driver, Scott, Lawson (Hayton 74), Fletcher (McLeod 63), Anderson (Dodds 85), Calvert, Johnson. Unused Substitutes- Bailey, Caygill
Saturday’s Division 2 Results
Billingham Town 1 (W att) Jarrow 2 (Armstrong, Karim)
Darlington Town 0 AFC Newbiggin 1 (Smith)
Durham United 0 Newcastle University 3 (Morris, Pennington, Manning)
Grangetown BC 3 (O’Brien 2, Lambert) Billingham Synthonia 1 (Healy)
Prudhoe YC 0 Chester le Street Town 2 (Robson 2)
Seaham Red Star 4 (Wilds 2, Weirs, Porritt) Esh Winning 0
Sunderland RCA 1 (Guy) Boldon CA 1 (Humble)
Sunderland West End 4 (Hunter, Appleby, Davis, Deehan) Alnwick Town 2 (Clarke 2)
Tow Law Town 4 (Walsh 3, Shevells) Yarm & Eaglescliffe 0