In the 29 years that I have
been following the Sunday Cup, I've only seen one game in Nottinghamshire,
which was the 2000 final between Albion Sports and Prestige Brighams, which was
played at Nottingham Forest’s ground.
Clearly, another visit was
overdue and this outstanding 3rd round tie gave me the perfect opportunity to do
this. The game was played at Rolls Royce Leisure in Hucknall, which is just
around the corner from Hucknall Town’s ground, which staged the 2009 semi-final
between Scots Grey and Lakeside Athletic.
As we travelled down from
Yorkshire, we were surprised to see a covering a snow as we entered
Nottinghamshire and the pitch itself also had a light dusting of snow. However, the line
markings were clearly visible and the ground was surprisingly soft, so the game
was not in doubt.
After a cagey opening 10
minutes, the home side began to take the game to their Sunderland based
opponents and when T8’s number 10 was brought down in the penalty area on 15
minutes, I was surprised to see the referee not award a penalty, as it looked a certain foul from where I was
stood.
Five minutes later, T8’s
laid siege to the RCA goal and three consecutive corners lead to two goal line
clearances! Despite the intense pressure, the RCA defence stayed resolute as
they somehow managed to keep the home side at bay.
T8’s continued to apply the
pressure and came close to opening the scoring when their number 10 clipped the
post on 28 minutes.
T8’s hit the cross bar just
before half time but were unable to convert the rebound and, amazingly, we
arrived at half time goalless!
The second half was a much
more even affair, as T8’s were unable to sustain their first half dominance and
RCA came more in to the game.
With extra time growing
ever nearer and the game still scoreless with just 10 minutes remaining, an RCA
free kick was superbly headed home by Gary Hills to the utter disbelief of the
home side and their supporters.
With time running out, T8’s
tried their best to get back in to the game but just like their earlier
efforts, they were unable to breach their opponent’s defence and it was RCA who
progress to round 4, where they will travel to West Yorkshire to play HT
Sports.
Whilst I’d never seen T8’s
play before, I did watch RCA the previous week and they were clearly not the
same side who comfortably dispatched Eden Vale. They certainly missed Martin
Metcalfe, whose man of the match performance included scoring the opening goal
and providing the two others in a 3-0 win.
