Match preview – Ryhope CW Football Club

Match Preview: Ryhope CW vs Hebburn Town

Ryhope CW welcome fifth placed Hebburn Town to Recreation Ground for a Northern League Division One encounter, our first home game since mid December.

Looking to extend our unbeaten start to 2019, we’re in for a tough test against a Hornets side enjoying a great first season in Division One.

However, Colliery Welfare will be hoping for a much better performance than they produced in the 1-1 draw away to Penrith last week.

Hebburn didn’t have a great time out last week either, taking a 3-2 defeat at Stockton Town.

After a very strong start to their league season, the Hornets have fallen a few points off the leading pack, but with a good run until the end of the season they could easily be in the promotion mix.

The South Tyneside club have also been going fantastically in the Vase and will face West Auckland, the only other Northern League club to have made the Fifth Round, in February.

A tough test, but there are some good omens for Ryhope. Colliery Welfare are unbeaten in their last three and have won their last two home league games.

Speaking ahead of the game, Colliery Welfare manager Gary Pearson said: “It’s nice to be back at home, the pitch should have had a rest.

“We have got a few decent teams coming up, people who are doing well in the league but on the other hand we are in a bit of form having been unbeaten in the last three games and we’ll look to take that into the next game and move on from there.

With the games at home we want to look to make it a bit of a fortress.”

This fixture is the first in a run of four home games and a win against a good side could possibly act as a springboard for this run of home fixtures.

Colliery Welfare’s visit to the Hornets this season ended in defeat.

The first-half was a deadlock, but James Ellis struck in the 50^th minute to give Ryhope the lead.

However, Michael Richardson equalised and Graeme Armstrong gave Hebburn a 60^th minute lead.

Armstrong bagged again, this time from the penalty spot, and Hebburn ran out 3-1 winners.

Hebburn were in Division Two last season, but we did meet once. Ryhope won 2-0 in the Northern League Cup thanks to a Joey Melvin double, however a lot has changed since then.

RCW’s squad is slightly depleted ahead of the game with injuries to Ollie Hotchkiss (knee), Elliott Woods (thigh), Chris Wallace (ankle), Nicky Kane (back).

Joe Atkinson was added to the injury list last week, taking a groin injury against Penrith. Corey Nicholson’s fitness test did not provide good news and he will be out long term.

Jack Devlin still has a four match ban.

Northern League Division One

Venue: Ryhope Recreation Park, Sunderland, SR2 0AB

Kick-Off: 3:00PM

Date: Saturday, January 19th

Match Preview: Penrith AFC vs Ryhope CW

Colliery Welfare make the long journey to Frenchfields Stadium this Saturday as they face a Penrith side still yet to win in the league.

The Cumbrian side currently sit bottom of Northern League Division One with four points.

However, things won’t be plain sailing for Ryhope. The struggling side gave us a very tough test at Recreation Park and came back from 2-0 down to level the score before Welfare managed to find a winner.

Colliery Welfare got their 2019 off to a flyer, doubles from James Ellis and former Shildon man Micky Rae giving Ryhope an excellent 4-3 away win in Dean Street.

Ryhope’s form has picked up recently, with three wins and a draw in their last five games.

Andy Coyles’ side have lost their last three but have two draws in their last six games against against Shildon and Sunderland RCA.

The spoils were shared in our games against the Cumbrian side last season, Ryhope winning all three points with a 5-3 scoreline at Frenchfields Stadium but taking a 1-0 defeat at home.

On this weekend’s game, manager Gary Pearson said: “We can’t afford to take this game lightly.

“Despite their league standing, if we go in expecting an easy game it could undo all the hard work we’ve done over previous weeks.”

Ryhope are not far off a full complement, Jack Devlin is still suspended following his red card in the fixture against West Auckland. Ollie Hotchkiss is still injured and Corey Nicholson will be assessed with a fitness test.

Northern League Division One

Venue: Frenchfields Stadium, Carleton, Penrith, CA11 8UA

Date: Saturday, January 12th

Kick-Off: 15:00

penrith ground — Penrith FC’s Frenchfields Stadium

Match Preview: The Ryhope Derby

Tomorrow we welcome our neighbours Sunderland RCA to Recreation Park for a Northern League Division One encounter.

We come into the game off the back of our first league victory since opening day, beating Whickham FC 4-2.

We will hope for an improvement on the game against RCA earlier this season when they knocked us out of the FA Cup at Meadow Park.

A goal from Michael Charlton, and doubles from Mark Davison and Colin Larkin meant RCA ran out 5-2 winners, both our goals coming due to own goals.

This extended the run to five winless Ryhope Derbies for CW, last season’s meeting at Recreation Park ending in a 3-1 victory for CA.

It will be tough to break the streak, RCA currently sit 2nd in the league on 18 points after 9 games. This follows a good season last time out when they finished 4th.

RCA have plenty of familiar faces in the likes of former CW manager Martin Swales, as well as a number of former Welfare players.

Added to the list of former CW players in the CA squad is former Welfare captain Kyle Davis.

Ryhope will be without current captain Ben Riding, who serves his last game of a two match ban.

Jonny Ball, Joey Melvin, Corey Barnes, Josh Home-Jackson, and Davey Gordon are the other players currently unavailable for selection

Northern League Division One

Venue: Ryhope Recreation Park, Ryhope, Sunderland, SR2 0AB

Date: Tuesday, September 25th

Kick-Off: 19:30

Match Preview: Whickham FC vs Ryhope CW

RCW return to league action this weekend after a month off, when we take on Whickham FC at the Glebe Sports Ground.

Since the last outing in the league, an away loss to Hebburn in late August, we have had three cup games.

We beat Chester-le-Street in the Vase, before being knocked out by Dunston, and followed that up with a Durham Challenge Cup victory over Crook on Wednesday.

Hopefully, we can get our first league victory since opening day when we beat Newton Aycliffe 2-0.

Our opponents, a newly-promoted side, have had a tough start to life in Division One.

They currently sit bottom of the table, with one point from seven games.

Ryhope will be without captain Ben Riding for the game due to his sending off against Dunston.

First choice ‘keeper Jonny Ball has been added to what was already a long injury list, hurting his ankle while warming up against Crook.

Joey Melvin, Corey Barnes, Josh Home-Jackson, and Davey Gordon are the other players currently unavailable for selection.

Northern League Division One

Venue: Glebe Sports Ground, NE16 4NA

Kick-Off: 15:00

Date: Saturday, September 22nd

FA Vase preview: Ryhope CW vs Dunston UTS

Ryhope take on Dunston UTS this Saturday in the FA Vase Second Qualifying Round.

We welcome the fellow Northern League Division One side to Recreation Park, as the clubs look to progress to the First Round Proper of this season’s Vase.

Colliery Welfare got this season’s Vase campaign underway with a 5-1 demolition of Division Two high-flyers Chester-le-Street, our goals coming from Micky Rae and James Ellis with doubles and Nat Skidmore with one.

Our opponents achieved a 2-0 home victory over Heaton Stannington in their First Qualifying Round.

Dunston UTS have had a great start to their Northern League campaign, sitting sixth, unbeaten with 13 points after five games.

The 2012 FA Vase champions finished three points above us last season in 10th.

In their Vase campaign last season, Dunston UTS reached the Second Round proper where they lost 1-0 at home to Worksop Town.

We exited at the same stage, with a 2-1 defeat at home to City of Liverpool, which followed victories over Guisborough (7-1), Northallerton (2-0 AET) and Harrogate Railway (10-1).

Colliery Welfare faced Dunston away in our final game of the 2017-18 season.

It was a perfect end to the season at the UTS stadium, Ryhope winning 4-2 thanks to goals from Ben Riding, Matty Weirs, and a Thomas Bott double.

However, in last season’s game at Recreation Park, Dunston ran out 3-0 winners.

FA Vase

Venue: Ryhope Recreation Park, SR2 0AB

Kick-Off: 3:00PM

Date: Saturday, September 15th

FA Vase preview: Chester-le-Street vs Ryhope CW

Colliery Welfare get their FA Vase campaign underway with a trip to Moor Park in the 1st Qualifying Round on Saturday.

The lads will be looking to put a long run of defeats behind them that continued in Hebburn last weekend, as well as hoping to progress to the 2nd round of qualifying.

We still currently have an extensive injury list, however the lads we’ve added to the squad for cover have settled in well and hopefully it shouldn’t have too much impact on Saturday’s game.

Last season we managed one of the best runs in the FA Vase in the club’s history when we reached the 2nd Round Proper before going out to North West Counties League side City of Liverpool FC.

Last season’s run saw wins over Guisborough and Northallerton in qualifying before an emphatic 10-1 win over Harrogate Railway in the 1st Round.

The 2nd Round saw a 2-1 home defeat to City of Liverpool, the well-supported club bringing around 250 fans to Recreation Park.

We faced Chester-le-Street in cup competition last season when we got knocked out of the Durham Challenge Cup, an Alex White hat-trick ensuring a 3-1 defeat, days after our Vase heroics against Harrogate.

We’ll be hoping for a different result this time round against the Northern League Division Two side who have had a good start to this season.

Colin Wake’s men finished 14th in Division Two last season, but currently sit 2nd with 5 wins from 5 games.

Clearly not a side to be underestimated, hopefully we can come away with a much needed win and kick-start a good run of our own.

FA Vase

Venue: Moor Park, Chester-le-Street, DH2 3RW

Kick-Off: 3:00PM

Date: Saturday, September 1st

Match Preview: Hebburn Town vs Ryhope CW

Colliery Welfare’s run of away games continues with a trip to Hebburn Sports and Social Ground on Saturday.

Ryhope are looking to put a run of four straight away defeats behind them, but face a tough test away at unbeaten Hebburn.

The performances in the last two games against Bishop Auckland and Whitley Bay haven’t been bad, Welfare creating plenty of chances in both games.

But the club now have a bigger issue of an extensive injury list which includes Carl Jones, Chris Trewick, Davey Gordon and Elliott Woods. Micky Rae came off early against Whitley Bay and may be another addition to this list.

Ben Riding is also unavailable. To deal with this issue, Ryhope recruited Shaun Pickford, Craig Ellison and Stephen Francis to cover.

The two sides met last year in the Northern League Cup, Colliery Welfare running away 2-0 winners both goals coming from Joey Melvin.

However, Scott Oliver’s side strengthened a lot over the summer follwing promotion from Northern League Division Two after finishing 2nd.

They have had a great start to life in Division One and currently sit 5th on 11 points after five games, winning three and drawing two.

A tough test is expected, but hopefully if Ryhope can show the same ability in creating chances, and take advantage of more then we can get something out of it.

With Sunderland away in Wimbledon and Newcastle playing on the Sunday, it would be great to see as many there as possible.

Northern League Division One

Venue: Hebburn Sports and Social Ground, Hebburn, NE31 1UN

Kick-Off: 3:00PM

Date: Saturday, August 25

Match Preview: Whitley Bay vs Ryhope CW

The Northern League fixtures come thick and fast, Ryhope travelling to Whitley Bay on Tuesday for their second of three consecutive league away days.

Colliery Welfare could really do to return from Hillheads with a few points, as they extended the run to four consecutive defeats at Bishop Auckland on Saturday.

However, the performance wasn’t bad at Heritage Park, the result slightly unfair to Colliery Welfare who had some good spells in the match but made some mistakes at the back.

We also came back from Bishop Auckland with additions to our injury list, Davey Gordon suffering a major blow with a torn Achilles, and Carl Jones came off injured on his debut and is another doubt. This adds to the likes of Ben Riding, Chris Trewick and Elliott Woods.

We come up against a side who are also in need of a positive result.

Like us, Whitley Bay opened the season with a win (beating Seaham Red Star at home 4-2), but have had a run of three league defeats since including being on the wrong end of an 8-0 battering by Dunston.

A difficult start for Andy Gowens’ side who finished 16th last season in Northern League Division One on 51 points.

Whitley Bay added the likes of Jack Foalle, Ibby Hassan, Adam Redford and Stepehen Ramsey to their squad this season, the latter of those players having a loan spell at Recreation Park last season while getting back to fitness.

Ryhope will hope for a much better performance than last time out at Hillheads, where they suffered a 7-0 defeat in October last year.

As ridiculous as it sounds, the 7-0 result doesn’t quite tell the full story. Ryhope had the better of the opening exchanges and had plenty of chances to take the lead before Peter Glen-Ravenhill’s strike in the 35th minute (the first of a hat-trick).

From there Ryhope seemed to capitulate, Whitley Bay added a couple more goals, Ryhope went down to 10-men and the Bay onslaught didn’t stop.

We also had a poor result at home, losing 3-2 after coming back from a goal down twice. James Ellis and Paul Braithwaite on the scoresheet for Welfare.

Northern League Division One

Venue: Hillheads Park, Whitley Bay, NE25 8HR

Date: Tuesday, August 21

Kick-Off: 7:30PM

Image result for Hillheads park — Our venue for the evening

Match Preview: Bishop Auckland vs Ryhope CW

Ryhope will play their first of four consecutive away games (three in the league) against Bishop Auckland this weekend.

After our opening day win away at Newton Aycliffe, Ryhope have now faced three defeats in a row, against West Auckland and Shildon in the league and against Sunderland RCA in the FA Cup.

Tuesday night’s defeat to Shildon was a much improved performance, the game was finely balanced and could have gone either way, Billy Greulich-Smith confirming Shildon’s victory following a counter attack in the 91st minute to make it 2-0.

It’s too early to trust the table, but this start leaves Colliery Welfare in 13th on three points.

Meanwhile, Bishop Auckland won both of their opening league games, beating Whickham 5-0 at home before a 2-1 away win at North Shields. However, they lost 2-0 at home to Pickering Town in the FA Cup.

Our opponents come off the back of a poor term last time out, where they finished 19th on 43 points, just four points above the bottom three.

They have had a much better start to this season and brought in as many as eleven new recruits in the summer.

Ryhope will hope for a repeat of last season’s fixture at Heritage Park, where they beat Bishop Auckland 3-1 thanks to goals from Matty Weirs, James Ellis and Josh Home-Jackson after Shaun Ryder gave Bishop the lead.

Colliery Welfare then completed a double over Bishop in the home game, once again coming from a goal down to win 3-1 thanks to a Micky Rae double before James Ellis once again rounded off the victory.

Northern League Division One

Venue: Heritage Park, Stadium Way, Bishop Auckland, DL14 9AE

Date: Saturday, August 18

Kick-Off: 3:00PM