SUNDERLAND RCA (Meadow Park)

FA CUP 1st QUALIFYING ROUND, SUNDERLAND RCA 2-4 STOCKTON TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 324

There were plenty of choices on offer today but I could not resist the lure of an FA Cup tie. After much deliberation, I decided to head to the North East for the match up between Sunderland RCA (of the Northern League) and Stockton Town (recently promoted to the Northern Premier League).

Sunderland RCA are based in the Ryhope area of the city and their full name is Sunderland Ryhope Community Association. The club was founded in 1963 and competed in local league's until the mid 1970's when the club folded after entry to the Wearside League was refused, as there was already a team called Ryhope competing in it.

The club reformed in 1978 and joined the Northern Alliance before becoming founding members of the Northern League Division Two in 1982. At this point the club were now playing at their own ground, Meadow Park, which is currently known as Sunderland LGV Park for sponsorship purposes. The Sunderland prefix was added in 2006 when the club joined forces with Springboard Sunderland and in 2010 they were promoted to the Northern League Division One.

It was a wise decision to head here to today as I witnessed an absolutely brilliant FA Cup tie.

The home side were fastest out the blocks and had a couple of efforts blocked within the first minute and had a couple of good chances after that but, against the run of the early play, Stockton took the lead when Kevin Hayes (14) scored from a free kick (pictured left). The visitors controlled the play after this and were 2-0 up after 22 minute, a superb flowing move culminating in the ball been played out wide for Mikey Roberts to run onto and fire into the bottom corner of the net.

Stockton nearly made it three but a quick counter resulted in Sunderland's Michael Annang-Colquhoun scrambling home after 28 minutes. This clearly lifted the home side and on 36 minutes they were level, Simon Jakab heading home.

There were chances for both teams before the break, Sunderland coming the closest when Mark Davison hit the crossbar in stoppage time.

After such an open first half the second half was always going to be a little more cagier but it was Stockton who always seemed to have the slight edge. It wasn't until 20 minutes from time that they finally pulled away when Hayes scored his second, via a slight deflection of a defenders heel (pictured right) and then substitute Nathan Steel wrapped the tie up with six minutes to go. 

A fantastic advert for the FA Cup and reaffirmed my belief that it is still the best Cup competition in the world. Stockton will now travel to Curzon Ashton in the next round, which should be another intriguing encounter.

THORNABY FC (Teesdale Park)

FA CUP PRELIMINARY ROUND, THORNABY 0-2 SUNDERLAND RCA, ATTENDANCE: 300

My first long distance drive since March led me to Teesside for the all Northern League FA Cup clash between Thornaby and Sunderland Ryhope Community Association at Teesdale Park.

Due to the restrictions placed on clubs due to Covid-19, the capacity for today's game was capped at 300. This meant the game was all-ticket, so therefore it was the first time in all my years of groundhopping that I had to buy a ticket for a Preliminary Round tie. I was extremely grateful to the club for putting a ticket aside for me as I couldn't get to the club to collect before the game.

Thornaby are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, having been founded in 2000. Prior to that they were known as Stockton, having been established in 1980 when Stockton Cricket Club's football team joined the Wearside Football League.

The club play at Teesdale Park and the ground is well appointed and has certainly improved since they were demoted to the Northern League Division Two because of the state of the ground. Having previously been subjected to arson, graffiti, fly-tipping and vandals driving over the pitch the ground is now fully enclosed with cover behind one goal, an open stand with seats and a seated main stand. There is even a bus shelter thrown in for good measure! For me though the best vantage point to watch the action was at the top of the grass bank when runs the length of the pitch.

The game was far from a classic with chances few and far between. Thornaby made most of the running but couldn't convert the possession into chances. They had the ball in the net in the first half but it was ruled out for offside. 

The second half continued in similar vein but at least Sunderland RCA upped their tempo a little. I sensed the game was heading for penalties until the turning point of the match after 70 minutes. Sunderland brought on Layton Watts as substitute and within two minutes he had whipped in a delicious curling cross which was headed home by Callum Hope, giving Thornaby's ex- Hartlepool and Middlesbrough 'keeper Dimitrios Konstantopoulos no chance.

After 80 minutes, Watts was involved again when, after some good play down the wing, he played the ball through for James Fairley to slot home. Thornaby piled forward and it took a superb double save from Sunderland's Rob Dean to preserve their clean sheet and ensure their passage into the next round.

SCARBOROUGH ATHLETIC (Scarborough Sports Village)

FA CUP 2nd QUALIFYING ROUND, SCARBOROUGH ATHLETIC 2-0 SUNDERLAND RYHOPE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, ATTENDANCE: 932

After a midweek adventure in Italy, today it was a train trip to the North Yorkshire coast. After a 10 year absence, football has returned to the seaside town of Scarborough and what better opportunity to visit their new ground than an FA Cup tie. The magic of the cup indeed!

It has been a long road back for Scarborough Athletic, the football club that was formed on 25th June 2007 following the liquidation (with debts of £2.5M) of Scarborough FC.

The new club was set up by the Seadog Trust, a group of supporters who originally started the trust with the aim of gaining fan representation on the board of Scarborough FC.

As a result of the old club’s liquidation, the Seadog Trust moved quickly to ensure a football team continued to represent the town at the highest level possible. On 25th June 2007, Scarborough Athletic were accepted into the NCEL Division 1 for the 2007/08 season, and an agreement was reached for the club to use Bridlington’s Queensgate stadium as part of a ground share with no suitable stadium able to be used in Scarborough.

Scarborough's former home, The Athletic Ground, latterly known as the McCain Stadium, was demolished in 2011 and is now a Lidl supermarket. There was a covenant on the ground which meant it could only be used for sporting activities. The liquidators applied to have the covenant lifted but this was contested by the Council. As a result, in the interim, the stadium remained empty and derelict, and was subject to vandalism.

The council decided it would be more prudent to invest in a new facility in the town rather than regenerate the old ground. Incidentally the demolition costs were met by Featherstone Rovers who purchased the two of the stands as part of the deal.

The gates at the entrance to the ground were preserved and incorporated into the new ground to serve as a lasting reminder of the "Theatre of Chips"

Old meets the new: The gates of the old Athletic Stadium
next to the entrance to the new stadium

Construction work on the new the ground began in late 2015 and the work was completed in Summer 2017. The first match to be played at the stadium was a friendly on 15th July 2017 versus Sheffield United.

The ground has a capacity of 2,070 people, with a 250 seated. There is a covered terrace behind one of the goals and the rest is flat standing. I have to admit the views are not great if you can't get a spot on the barrier. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to claim a seat in the stand this afternoon and was a good spot.

And as for today's game, there was nothing to choose between the sides. It was goalless at half-time with neither side seriously threatening to break the deadlock.

Scarborough came out fastest for the second half but their opening goal had an element of fortune. A routine back-pass to RCA 'keeper Neal Bussey was sliced by the unfortunate custodian straight into the path of Emile Sinclair, who squared the ball to Michael Coulson who fired home from inside the penalty area

After the goal RCA had a decent spell of possession but in truth Tommy Taylor in the Scarborough goal was never really troubled.  In the 83rd minute Scarborough doubled their lead when a ball in from the right was swept home by Luke Dean. There were a few chances for the home side to extend their lead late on as RCA threw bodies forward, but that would have made the scoreline look very harsh on the visitors.

             

The win created a little piece of history for Scarborough Athletic as this is now the furthest the club have gone in the FA Cup since their formation. They will play at home to Stratford Town in the next round.

No trip to the seaside would have been complete without some fish and chips and this helped with soakage after a visit to the excellent Stumble Inn, their selection of six ales were in absolutely fine form. Neither the food nor beer contained Parsley, sage, rosemary or thyme though!