Calum Ward celebrates scoring the winning penalty in Tadcaster’s 3-2 victory at Maltby. Picture: Ian Parker
For a second season running, Calum Ward held his nerve to score a dramatic last-minute winning penalty at Maltby Main.
Last time it was for Glasshoughton Welfare at the start of the 2013/14 campaign. This one was far more important as it completed another miraculous recovery from Toolstation NCEL Premier Division leaders Tadcaster Albion.
The spot kick earned Tadcaster a 3-2 win at Maltby after two goals in the last ten minutes.
The same happened last week against Handsworth Parramore, the only difference this week was they won the game.
Paul Marshall said on Friday that his side faced a difficult test and that proved to be the case.
Maltby put them under pressure and early on Tom Coker headed wide. The task of firing Maltby ahead fell to Brian Cusworth, whose blast found the net.
Lewis Clarkson fires Tadcaster level in the first half. Picture: Ian Parker
Lewis Clarkson levelled for Taddy with a low curling effort, but Sam Forster restored the home side’s lead.
Maltby held on for the majority of the second half and even nearly grabbed a third through Louis Penty.
Maltby goalkeeper Ben Brunt then made one of the saves of the season before Danny Gray rescued Tad with the equaliser.
And then in the dying seconds, Tad won the penalty and substitute Ward stepped up to earn his side another important victory.
Tadcaster Albion manager Paul Marshall:
“It was a strange game played on a very bobbly pitch and I thought we overplayed.
“We had a lot of possession without really troubling them until we made the substitution.
“We have conceded eight goals in a week and each one has been a silly error and I said at half-time that we’re going through a phase in the season where teams are punishing us for individual errors.
“Hopefully that will change. We’re managing to scrape results which it was because they could have had a penalty. But they didn’t and we got the penalty for handball and Calum stuck it away.”
Maltby Main: Brunt, Coker, Fenton, Bate, Hibbert (captain), Penty, Dockerty, Smith, Cusworth, Norbury, Forster. Subs: Dacre, Spruce, Barnfield.
Tadcaster Albion: Morgan. Bissett, Barrett, Ormsby, Milne, Ingram (captain), Claisse, Patterson, Clarkson, Dhesi, Greening. Subs: Lawrie, Gray, Stewart, Ward, Thompson.
Referee: Andrew Dallison (Nottinghamshire)
Attendance: 102
Thanks to Ben Storey of Maltby Main for this report. If you want your club’s reports to be featured on Non League Yorkshire each week, send descriptions of key incidents to info@nonleagueyorkshire.com