Hard luck stories shown red card by Pickering Town leaders (From York Press)

Hard luck stories shown red card by Pickering Town leaders

10:00am Friday 20th January 2012 in Football By Steve Carroll, Sports reporter

PICKERING Town must not dwell on their bad luck as they prepare for a stern test against table-topping Retford, says boss Jimmy Reid.

The Pikes host the Northern Counties East League premier division leaders tomorrow looking to recover from their first defeat under their new manager – a 3-1 loss against Scarborough Athletic.

Reid’s men perhaps deserved more out of the derby, the game turning as former goalkeeper Kevin Martin saved a penalty and then Scarborough were awarded a dubious spot-kick, but the Scotsman has told his players not to linger on what happened at Queensgate.

“It’s all ifs and buts,” said Reid. “At the end of the day we were beaten. They (players) aren’t happy at being beaten and Browny (assistant Steve Brown) and I aren’t happy. We have had a chat. We might have been unlucky but we don’t like that thinking.

“It lulls you into a false sense of security. We need to move on. We are playing a team at the top of the league who are very resilient. I went down and watched 25 minutes of their match against Tadcaster and I thought there would only be one winner. In the second half, Retford came out and won.”

On his side’s progress during his short tenure, Reid added: “We are really happy with the way that the players have gone about their business through the transition. A lot of time has been spent on the training pitch and things we have tried to get going are now coming off.

“But we need to keep moving on. We are not happy to just stand still.”

Squad-wise, Joel Ramm and Steve Baxter are struggling with niggling injuries but Reid expects both to be fit.

More goals from midfield have been demanded by Tadcaster Albion manager Paul Marshall.

The Brewers boss wants his engine-room to ease the burden on the strikers and, in particular, leading scorer Carl Stewart. Marshall was running the rule over two trialists in a midweek friendly against Bradford Park Avenue with Tadcaster welcoming Armthorpe Welfare to Ings Lane tomorrow in the top-flight.

With his defence having conceded five goals in their last two games, three against Retford in defeat and two in a come-from-behind draw against Brighouse, Marshall is hoping the likes of Nick Thompson and Terry Taylor can start to find the net more regularly.

He said. “I was pleased that Nick got me one on Saturday and he and Terry both got me eight or nine last year. The target is for ten goals from midfield. Both of them usually score a few goals and they haven’t this season.

“We have got away with it so far because we have defended well. But in the last two games we have conceded five goals and that’s very uncharacteristic. We don’t want that trend to continue but we also need to start scoring a few more goals.”

Armthorpe are 11th in the table and Tadcaster won 2-1 there in mid-September. But Marshall added: “You would expect to beat them but you never know what you are going to get. They have had some brilliant results and then they were beaten by Maltby Main.”

Tadcaster will only be without Danny Gray, who aggravated an ankle injury against Retford and will now be out for a few weeks.

Elsewhere, in Blue Square Bet North, Harrogate Town are at Altrincham.

Neighbours Harrogate Railway, hammered 7-0 by Fylde last weekend, look to find compensation at Cammell Laird in the Evo-Stik League first division north.