Colliery Welfare face Shildon AFC in the Ebac Northern League tonight, in their second home match of the season.
Looking to put the disappointment of the weekend’s FA Cup exit behind them, Ryhope will hope for better luck against Shildon than they had in their games last season.
Last season’s games against Shildon came within two days of each other due to postponements. The home tie was a 3-1 loss for RCW. James Ellis put Colliery Welfare in the lead after 16 minutes, but Shildon responded with three before the break and the sides played out a goalless second-half.
The away tie was another Shildon win, Stephen Ramsey scoring two for Ryhope as we slipped to a 3-2 defeat. It was an entertaining late season encounter that saw Jonny Ball have a cameo appearance up front. He put himself about a bit to be fair.
We currently sit on three points in Division One of the Northern League, an opening day victory over Newton Aycliffe followed up by a 1-3 home loss to West Auckland.
Our opponents have had an unbeaten start, drawing 1-1 at home to Stockton on opening day before beating Guisborough 4-1 away in midweek.
Northern League Division One
Venue: Ryhope Recreation Park, Ryhope, Sunderland, SR2 0AB
Date: Tuesday, August 14
Kick-Off: 7:30PM
The opposition
Daniel Moore’s men finished 3rd in Division One last season, the closest challengers to the rampant Marske and Morpeth. They finished on 80 points, 17 back on Morpeth Town in 2nd.
Our opponents boast a young squad, the average age of registered players coming in at around 26 years-old.
Among them is former Hartlepool and Carlisle man Matty Robson, who scored in the fixture at Dean Street last season, young defender Dominic Curl who won the club’s player of the season award and Billy Greulich-Smith, a hard-working forward who caused us problems in both fixtures last season and is a former Northern League player of the year.
They also strengthened a fair bit in the summer, including the signing of Marske United’s Danny Earl who scored over 30 goals last season.