SELBY Town secured back-to-back pre-season wins after defeating Pickering Town on another another very warm evening at The Fairfax Plant Hire Stadium, writes Phil Dearnley.

The Robins began brightly as Liam Flanagan forced a good save from the Pickering ‘keeper and Mark Simpson looked to have a good claim for a penalty.

Pickering roared back when a scuffed shot called for Dylan Parkin to make a top save and he was perhaps fortunate that a lurking Pickering forward was just unable to latch onto his parry.

After not much by way of goal mouth action, it was Pickering Town who took the lead.

Ex-Pikes man Brad Freer was mugged by two of his former team mates and the ball was played swiftly into Nathan Perks who slotted the ball home.

It didn’t take the Robins long to get back on terms. Nick Kennedy almost got on the end of a free kick, and as the ball was pinged back into the box, it fell nicely for Josh Street to smash it into the net.

Mark Simpson hit the post after a cute Charlie Clamp through ball as Selby chased a second.

And they found it before half-time. Clamp tried his luck with a shot that the keeper looked to have it covered, but the unfortunate Matty Turnbull intervened to put the ball in his own net.

In the second-half, Pickering were forced into a change after captain Wayne Brooksby was sent off.

Despite this Pickering pressed hard for an equaliser, with a couple of desperate blocks needed to preserve Selby’s lead.

But they were undone by the sucker punch. Selby moved the ball very quickly to Simpson on the left wing who cut inside and neatly slipped the ball past the exposed keeper.

Another Flanagan goal put the game beyond Pickering’s reach. He cut in from the left side and, though there was a suspicion of handball, he got past the keeper who was way outside his area.

The referee was unmoved by opposition shouts, which left the forward with the relatively easy task of rolling the ball into an empty net.

Another Flanagan effort this time brushed the post with a free kick, but it was Pickering who had the best of the late chances as a makeshift Selby defence started to struggle to contain the visitors.

It took a desperate late intervention from Danny Snaith to block a goal bound shot, and Parkin needed to be on his mettle to divert the ball round his post.