Evo Stik Division One North
Tadcaster Albion 2-1 Radcliffe Borough
The Greening brothers celebrate Josh’s early goal for Tadcaster. Picture: Matthew Appleby
A first half double from last season’s top scorer Josh Greening was enough to see off Radcliffe Borough and return Tadcaster to winning ways.
Greening fired Taddy into a four minute lead after capitalising on Timmy Raheem’s error.
Greening doubled The Brewers’ lead half-way through the first half after a terrific solo goal.
Borough bit back in the second half with Frank Van Gils bending a super strike into the top corner to reduce the deficit but in the end Taddy held on to the points.
After back to back defeats The Brewers responded in the perfect way breaking the deadlock after just four minutes.
Conor Sellars did well originally to keep Rob Youhill’s deep cross in-play before Steve Jeff’s pull-back was mis-controlled by Timmy Raheem and fired into the bottom corner emphatically by Greening.
The Brewers were looking for a quick reaction after consecutive poor performances and they certainly got that as Radcliffe struggled to cope with the early hoard of yellow pressure.
Youhill started lively on the right as Daniel Ashburner struggled to deal with the sheer directness of the winger. It was Youhill’s pinpoint cross in the 9th minute which almost resulted in Taddy doubling their lead, Jimmy Beadle guiding a header onto the roof of the net.
After a vibrant opening twenty minutes from Tad, the away side began to grow in the game and venture further forward.
When Radcliffe did carve out an opportunity to try and test Michael Ingham in the Taddy goal, Andy Milne was in the right place to block Jack Hindle’s strike.
The Brewers still looked threatening and full of ideas going forward through the likes of Youhill, Beadle and Greening and these first two combined for what would have been an extraordinary goal.
Youhill got the better of full-back Daniel Ashburner once again and put in a simply sublime rabona cross to Jimmy Beadle who controlled well but half-volleyed over the crossbar.
With Michael Ingham virtually a spectator for the first portion of the contest, he was made to work incredibly hard to keep his side in the lead.
Boro captain Jack Hindle cut inside from the left and unleased a bullet which looked destined for the top corner but the towering figure of Ingham flew up to his right and brilliantly tipped over.
That save proved to be even more pivotal moments later as Taddy doubled their lead courtesy of Greening once again. He orchestrated this goal all by himself as firstly he outmuscled Ishmail Suliemam, then nutmegged Jacques Kpohomouh and outpaced Dilon Lomas before rounding it off with a cool as you like finish under Borough goalkeeper Matthew Johnson.
With half-time approaching it was almost game-over as the woodwork saved Radcliffe from further woe. After scoring a stunning goal in the defeat to Ossett Town on Tuesday night, Jason Mycoe was almost at it again as the midfielder saw his strike from 25 yards deflect off Lomas and onto the crossbar with Beadle volleying the rebound narrowly wide.
Into the second half and the visitors were almost victims of their own downfall after being caught guilty of over-playing at the back as Beadle couldn’t quite beat Johnson in the Boro goal.
Taddy’s tempo and urgency dropped off somewhat in the second half as Radcliffe grew in confidence. Elliot Rokka looked lively when on the ball and he had a fantastic chance to pull a goal back on the hour mark.
The attacker was played clean through on goal but Ingham stood tall and denied Rokka with his legs.
However Borough did pull a goal back in the 66th minute and what a goal it was. Former Manchester City youngster Van Gils cut inside from the left and curled an unstoppable strike into the top right-hand corner.
The goal certainly gave Radcliffe confidence in abundance as tension grew at the i2i stadium.
Pressure began to pile up on The Brewers as it turned into attack versus defence, luckily Jack Hindle and Raul Corriea couldn’t keep their cool in front of the goal.
Taddy struggled to keep hold of the ball in the second half as the precarious score line of 2-1 looked somewhat jittery.
However Elliot Rokka spurned Radcliffe’s final chance of the afternoon in stoppage time as the former Northern Ireland goalkeeper Ingham stood tall once more as The Brewers held on to an important three points.
The Team
Tadcaster Albion: Ingham, Barrett (Morgan 63), Jeff, Milne, Anderson, Mycoe, Youhill (Binns 76), Beadle (captain), Jono Greening, Josh Greening, Sellars. Subs unused: Ibrahimi, Shepherd.
Thanks to Jay Taylor for this report.