Tadcaster’s George Conway celebrates one of his three goals in the 4-4 draw with Albion Sports. Picture: Keith Handley
A George Conway hat-trick wasn’t enough for Tadcaster Albion as battling Albion Sports secured a 4-4 draw at i2i Sports Stadium.
It was a pulsating Toolstation NCEL Premier Division encounter and the stalemate meant Tadcaster were unable to regain the top spot.
Albion, Marcus Edwards headed comfortably over on 11 minutes for the visitors and Dan Clayton struck powerfully off target also before Conway gave The Brewers the lead on the 20 minute mark. Adam Baker stormed down the left wing, cut back and glided a pass across to Josh Greening in an inside right position. Greening then approached the defender, performed a little step-over and went past the Sports man to then pull back to Conway who precisely guided into the bottom left hand corner via a kiss off the post.
Ten minutes later and the away side nearly levelled the match as Sam Bradley out-jumped Jason Mycoe on a corner but his looping header bounced onto the crossbar and into the hands of Leon Wrigglesworth.
With the half-time whistle about to go, Albion Sports came the closest yet as Aran Basi’s dinked diagonal cross was flicked goal wards by Matthew Mathers but the ball agonisingly trickled to safety.
It was coming before the break and it did come just after the break for the visitors as Matty Dalton threaded it through to Edwards whose shot just had enough venom in it to beat Wrigglesworth in the Tad goal.
This goal sparked a crazy ten minutes which incredibly saw four goals scored.
The equaliser from Albion Sports clearly got the Brewers’ tails up as they immediately went up the other end and snatched the lead back. Conway bent a through ball in behind the Albion defence with the outside of his boot which set up a race between Nick Black and Jack Bentley the Sports goalkeeper. The stopper started to sprint towards the ball but then strangely chose to retreat back to his goal leaving Black with a clear run down the left. The striker then carried the ball inside and rolled it across the box perfectly to Greening who finished exquisitely.
It was just five minutes later and the away side were level once again. It was that little danger man again Dalton who spun around Clayton in the box and was then adjudged to have been brought down by Matt Heath. Penalty kick given. Albion’s talisman Edwards stepped up and just managed to squirm it under Wrigglesworth for his second of the afternoon.
The extraordinary match took another twist five minutes later as Liam Ormsby arrowed a through ball down the inside right channel to Greening who cut back onto his favoured left-foot, rode a couple of challenges and shifted it sideways to Conway who steadied himself and guided it into the back of the net to give Taddy a 3-2 lead.
Albion, the Tadcaster one that is, must have thought that they had the three points in the bag when they netted their fourth of the day in the 72nd minute.
The home side took a throw-in quickly near the corner flag as Black got it back off Baker who then gave it back to Baker who brilliantly flicked it around James Firth and fired low and hard to Conway who slid in and netted his hat-trick.
Just as the home fans around the i2i Sports Stadium started to think they had done enough to win the match, the pendulum swung once again as Albion Sports reduced the deficit to one. Alex Cusack got played in behind The Brewers’ defence and delicately flicked past Wrigglesworth to make it 4-3 and setup a nervy 13 minutes.
Albion Sports did incredibly level the match again at 4-4 with five minutes remaining. Another substitute Brice Tiani spreaded it out to the left-hand side where Cusack had acres of spaces and was one-on-one with Wrigglesworth. The striker then opened up his body and took it around the goalkeeper leaving and scored into an empty net.
Tadcaster Albion: Wrigglesworth, Armstrong, Clayton, Heath, Mycoe, Ormsby, Beadle, Baker, Greening, Conway, Black. Subs unused: Stewart, Beestin, Woodhead, Thompson, Barrett.
Report by Jay Taylor