Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Tadcaster Albion 4-1 Worksop Town
Tadcaster Albion celebrate during the 4-1 win over Worksop Town. Picture: Ian Parker
Tadcaster Albion dismantled title rivals for the third time this season to claim a potentially vital double.
It was honours even at the break as highly-sought after midfielder Tom Elliott cancelled out Adam Baker’s early strike. The Brewers were solid at the back and patient throughout the afternoon and Jimmy Beadle’s precise volley saw them take the lead before a brace from Josh Greening wrapped up the three points as the title race really begins to hot up.
The game, played at Selby Town because of the ongoing repair work at the i2i Sports Stadium, kicked off in blue sky sunshine before persistent snow showers. It was Worksop who had the first shot at goal as Steven Woolley spun around three yellow shirts and struck narrowly wide of the mark.
The first big chance of the match fell to James Cottingham of Worksop as Woolley played a neat one-touch ball in behind for Cottingham who had a clear view of the goal but his shot was wild and off target.
The first goal was scored after 11 minutes as The Brewers took an early lead. Josh Greening carried the ball into the final third and played a lovely weighted ball in behind to Baker who had pulled off his man and the former Bradford City man found the back of the net with a side-footed finish. Worksop goalkeeper Jon Kennedy won’t be happy to watch the goal back however as Baker’s effort was tame and right at him.
Gary Stevens in the Tadcaster goal had his first save to make with 20 minutes gone as Matthew Booth managed to squeeze a shot on target but the former Highworth Town stopper got down well to his left hand side.
However Worksop were back in it two minutes later as recent Sheffield Wednesday trialist Elliott equalised for The Tigers. Tad scored a brilliant counter-attacking goal on Tuesday night at Parkgate and Worksop did something similar to them to draw level. Josh Greening’s corner was cleared at the near post as Woolley picked up the pieces, spun off Jason Mycoe and chipped in behind Taddy’s defence as new signing Alex Nightingale nipped in before Anderson and tried to play it out wide to Elliott but his first attempt was blocked by Dan Clayton. The attempted pass took a couple of fortunate ricochets and fell back to Nightingale whose pass this time made it to Elliott who stroked it under the advancing Stevens.
The second half started with a bunch of half chances for both sides, oh and some more snow. Jimmy Beadle went close for Tadcaster and Julian Lawrence headed just over for Worksop as all 392 fans in attendance sensed that the next goal in the match was a big one.
The next goal came on the hour and it was Tadcaster Albion that retook the lead. Adam Baker was having an outstanding game on the right hand side and was giving Phil Roe a torrid time. Once again Baker had the pace and power to glide down the wing, pick his head up and cleverly pull it back to the captain Jimmy Beadle who executed a low volley absolutely perfectly as he guided it into the bottom corner.
There was still time for the visitors to get back into the match plus they were still seeing plenty of the ball but Taddy’s game plan seemed to be working to a tee as they sat and defended terrifically as a unit and this frustrated Worksop when probing.
With that being said they had a golden chance to level the match for a second time as Booth laid it off to Cottingham in an inside left position and drove low but Gary Stevens came up with a superb save to keep the score line at 2-1.
The save proved to be an even more important one as just a minute later The Brewers extended their lead. As well as Baker, Jordan Armstrong was having an impressive afternoon linking up with Baker time and time again and they did just that for the third goal. Baker shifted to Armstrong, Baker turned on the turbo to get beyond Roe and Armstrong brilliantly chipped over the defender to pick out Baker’s run. Baker drove to the by-line and pulled a cross back looking for Josh Greening in which Cottingham and Lawrance Gorman dived in to try and clear but ended up missing the ball and colliding with each other allowing Josh Greening to fire into the back of the net.
Worksop rallied but their efforts seem to fade in the final 10 minutes on the heavy Selby pitch as everything was pointing to a Tadcaster win. The Brewers put the icing on the cake in the last minute by scoring a fourth. Liam Ormsby sent Josh Greening clean through on goal as Jon Kennedy started to charge out of his goal but then halted in his tracks and Greening superbly curled a low shot from distance which slowly rolled into the back of the net.
Tadcaster Albion: Stevens, Armstrong, Clayton, Heath, Anderson, Ormsby, Baker (Sellars 87), Mycoe, Beadle (captain) (Black 81), Josh Greening, Jonathan Greening. Subs unused: Milne, Stewart, Barrett.
Thanks to Jay Taylor for this report.