Evo Stik Division One North
Radcliffe Borough 2-3 Tadcaster Albion
Tadcaster striker Tom Corner
Goals from debutant Tom Allan, Josh Greening and Tom Corner saw Tadcaster see off Radcliffe Borough and win for the first time in over a month.
Manager Billy Miller made two changes to last week’s defeat to Lancaster City with Gary Stevens returning in goal and a start for new loan signing Tom Allan.
Allan is a centre-half who has recently been moulded into being a left-winger and that is where he started on his Taddy debut. Coming in at 6”4, Allan is certainly one of the tallest wingers in, well, football alone.
And the man on loan from Alfreton should have opened his account for the Brewers after just eight minutes.
Tom Corner’s powerful flick on was misjudged by Alex Ahmed and dropped kindly for Allan who fired narrowly wide from twelve yards.
Borough began the contest seeing more of the ball as they persisted on playing out from the back and an outstanding sliding block from Josh Barrett kept Stanislav Zhekov and the home side at bay.
The home side may have been enjoying more spells in charge of the football but it was Taddy who were creating all of the chances as Josh Greening’s out-swinging free-kick somehow evaded Dan Thirkell and Tom Allan.
With almost half an hour played, Miller’s men continued to look dangerous going forward. Carl Stewart’s inviting cross was latched onto by Corner who couldn’t quite force beyond a mixture of Kpohomouh and goalkeeper Ryan from a couple of yards.
The ball then popped out to Josh Greening who attempted a Cryuff flick finish but asked for a penalty after colliding with Alex Ahmed. The appeals weren’t strong and referee Simpson wasn’t convinced.
Two minutes later and Radcliffe took the lead, against the run of play. Skipper Lassana Nalatche tried his luck from thirty yards and his luck was certainly in as it took a wicked deflection off Andy Milne and past Gary Stevens into the back of the net.
Number nine Raul Corriea was looking a threat for Boro up front and he came close to putting them further in front on a couple of occasions. First of all Corriea was brilliantly denied by Stevens who was rapid off his line to narrow the angle before the forward then missed the target sixty seconds later.
With seven minutes to go until the break, Taddy did then deservedly draw level through debutant Tom Allan.
Allan used his strength to bully Nalatche off the ball before hooking his foot around the ball and firing exquisitely into the bottom right-hand corner.
The Brewers came out and started the second half meaning business as the Borough were caught napping.
Josh Greening drove into the penalty area and hammered a right-footed effort through Ryan in the Radcliffe goal who will be disappointed with his efforts.
And less than two minutes later Taddy were firmly in the driving seat as Corner netted his eleventh goal of the campaign, and what an aesthetically pleasing goal it was.
Tom Allan skipped beyond his man on the left flank before hanging up a cross towards the towering figure of Tom Corner.
Corner then tremendously used all of his neck muscles to loop his header up and over the full stretching Ryan from all of fifteen yards.
But the momentum then swung back in the favour of the home side as striker Raul Corriea reduced the deficit to just one after firing low into the bottom corner.
This goal sprung Radcliffe into life as the crowd roared their side on and confidence was clearly growing.
The introduction of Conor Sellars almost paid off within 90 seconds as he turned his man inside and back, inside and back before sliding a through ball to Josh Greening who saw his vicious shot tipped over with the faintest of touches.
Borough’s big chance fell to defender Nalatche in the dying embers. A dangerous cross from the left squirmed past Stevens to captain Nalatche at the back post who could only direct his shot onto the upright.
Sellars and Baker had glorious chances to make sure of the points in stoppage time but both were denied by goalkeeper Ryan.
The Teams
Radcliffe Borough: Ryan, Ahmed, Nalatche (captain), Zhekov, Kpohomouh, Grogan, Kennedy, Raheem, Corriea, Van Gils, Rokka. Subs: Ready, Etherington, McLean, McCabe, Hallam.
Tadcaster Albion: Stevens, Barrett, Grant, Milne, Anderson (captain), Mycoe, Stewart (Baker 82), Thirkell, Corner, Greening, Allan (Sellars 70). Subs unused: Shepherd, Armstrong, Ibrahimi.
Thanks to Jay Taylor