Newton Aycliffe finished the season with a 2-0 home defeat to in-form Sunderland RCA. Aycliffe were missing some players, but still gave a good account of themselves against a team who were unbeaten in nine games prior to this match.

Aycliffe started brightly, and Jordan Jewson put in a good cross on 4 minutes, that Kurt Matthews just failed to collect under pressure. A minute later RCA keeper and ex-Aycliffe player Scott Pocklington did well to palm out an in-swinging corner. RCA took the lead on 19 minutes, when a high ball into the penalty area wasn’t cleared by Aycliffe and Elliott latched into the loose ball to put it past home keeper Jack McLaren.

The play was fairly even, but on 30 minutes, McLaren had to make a smart double-save. Three minutes before the interval, RCA were awarded a penalty when Andrew Grant-Soulsby was alleged to have fouled an RCA forward. The RCA players didn’t appeal, so perhaps justice was served when McLaren made a fine save from Larkin’s spot-kick.

The second half was also fairly even, albeit RCA created slightly better plays and chances. They got behind the Aycliffe defence 2 minutes in, but the resulting cross was just behind centre forward O’Neill. Then Jordan Jewson had a good chance for Aycliffe, but his shot was charged down for a corner. RCA came back and McLaren made a good save from Charlton.

Aycliffe responded, and Jewson had a shot well saved by Pocklington. Aycliffe man-of-the-match Liam Browne was having a good game against RCA centre forward O’Neill, and restricted him to long range shots and headers over the bar. RCA extended their lead on 67 minutes. Page put in a cross that McLaren seemed to have covered, but the ball squirmed out of his grasp, hit the post and went in for 2-0.

Aycliffe continued to compete to the end, but were unable to trouble Pocklington, and RCA saw out time for the win. The result saw Aycliffe finish 14th out of 22 in the Ebac Northern League Division One. The club would like to thank our volunteers for their hard work throughout the season & our supporters for following the team home & away. Special thanks also to our shirt sponsors Ebac & SE Landscaping whose support was crucial.

Preparations for next season are already under way at Moore Lane. It is expected that the FA will reduce leagues at our level (Step 5) to 20 teams in the hope that it will prevent end of season fixture congestion.

Marske & Morpeth have been promoted to Step 4 while Jarrow Roofing who finished third bottom have resigned from the League.

We start again in August, when Aycliffe enter their tenth Northern League season, but watch out for latest news on pre season friendlies & fixtures by following us on Facebook & Twitter.