Performance secondary as Ryhope march on in FA Vase
Ryhope CW joint-manager Chris McCabe was happy to focus on the result rather than the performance as his side continued their historic run in this season’s FA Vase competition.
After five weeks without a game, Ryhope returned to competitive action with a second round tie against North West Counties League club Abbey Hey.
And they secured a first ever third round tie as they edged a narrow 1-0 win thanks to a second-half penalty from striker Brad Hird.
Ryhope will now play host Liversedge next weekend as they look to avoid becoming the third Northern League club to have their Vase dreams ended by the Northern Counties East League title challengers.
After the narrow win over Abbey Hey, McCabe said: “We haven’t a proper competitive game for five weeks.
“We had a couple of friendlies, we trained over the five weeks and the lads were set weekly targets of what they had to do.
“Did they all do it? Probably not.
“We have been in lockdown and it’s been stop-start all season, so there were some heavy legs in the second-half.
“But we came through it in the end.
“We h a d t w o o r t h re e clear-cut chances, but all we care about is being through to the next round.”
Elsewhere, Hebburn Town came out on top in a home tie between the Northern League’s top two clubs as they won by the odd goal in five against North Shields.
The two sides could not be separated after an actionpacking opening 45 minutes on a rain-sodden pitch at the Green Energy Sports Ground as the Robins’ Ryan Carr cancelled out an opener from Hornets captain Louis Storey.
But two goals in the opening 15 minutes of the second-half from Hebburn duo M ic h ae l R i c h a rd s o n a n d Graeme Armstrong put their side in control of what was an evenly contested and intriguing match-up.
But the home side were made to sweat after former Newcastle United academy winger Callum Smith got the visitors back into the game with nine minutes remaining.
The Robins pressed forward for an equaliser, but the Hornets held on and it is they that will entertain Vauxhall Motors in the third round after they saw out five minutes of added-on time.