Pre-season friendly: Tadcaster Albion 2 Spennymoor Town 6

DESPITE leading at the break, Tadcaster Albion fell to a 6-2 loss as Spennymoor Town, newly promoted to Vanarama National League North, showed their class.

The Brewers came into the tough pre-season encounter without Jake Ellam, Josh Grant, Tom Corner, Jason Mycoe and Jason Stokes, but welcomed back Aaron Hardy and Joel Dixon into the squad, and, for the first time, Pete Davidson.

The first noteworthy chance came for the visitors after seven minutes as Ryan Hall's powerful strike was beaten away by Michael Ingham.

Two minutes later, Town's No 1 Daniel Lawson was called into action.

When Sam Akeroyd fed Danny Frost, he took three quick clever touches and pulled the trigger, only for Lawson to tip over.

Back up the other end, Ingham was called upon for the second time in the first 11 minutes.

Glen Taylor received the ball to feet with his back to goal and did well to get his shot off, but Ingham reacted quickly to get down to his left.

The Brewers took the lead in the 26th minute.

Liam Shepherd set the tone by pressing Robert Ramshaw out of possession, allowing Conor Sellars to arrow a perfect ball in behind for Josh Greening to round the goalkeeper and stroke into the empty net.

As expected, Spennymoor were seeing more of the ball in the first half and continued to carve out good opportunities but kept firing off target.

Robert Ramshaw and Hall, on more than one occasion, squandered good chances.

Davidson was introduced at the break, along with former Huddersfield Town player Aaron Hardy.

It took the Moors just three minutes to level as David Foley was Jonny on the spot and hooked in after Ingham kept out Hall.

As legs began to tire, Spennymoor took advantage by scoring three in six minutes.

Foley, who netted twice at Wembley for South Shields in the FA Vase final two months ago, saw his cross take a slight deflection off defender Andy Milne, which carried it into the far corner of the net, kissing a post on its way in.

Taylor got himself on the scoresheet three minutes later.

Milne did well to block the striker's first shot, only for the ricochet to fall back kindly for Taylor to sneak the ball home at the near post.

Substitute Andrew Johnson then made it 4-1 after racing clean through on goal and confidently stroking the ball into the back of the net.

Despite a flurry of goals from the visitors, Taddy hit back 11 minutes from time.

Energetic frontman Frost pounced on a mistake, drove down the right flank and put the ball on a plate for Greening to scramble it over the line for his second of the afternoon.

Michael Morton's side continued to work hard in the soaring sunshine but ended up gifting Spennymoor two more goals in the dying stages, with former international Ingham replaced by a trialist in goal.

Jake Orrell coolly stroked the ball into the bottom corner before Jamie Chandler fired in a rebound right on the full-time whistle.

The Brewers worked extremely hard for 65 minutes to contain a very impressive National League North side, but fatigue kicked in and Spennymoor showed their quality in the final quarter.

Tadcaster Albion: Ingham, Howarth, Shepherd, Akeroyd, Milne (captain), Barrett, Rose, Greening, Crouz, Frost, Sellars. Substitutes: Hardy, Davidson, Ibrahimi, Dixon, Chigumira, Stewart.

Spennymoor Town Lawson, trialist, Mason, Dixon, Chantler, Curtis, Hall, Ramshaw, Taylor, Anderson, Foley. Substitutes: Henry, Mitchell, Dowson, Orrell, Johnson, Chandler. Unused substitute: Porter.