TADCASTER Albion made a strong start to their pre-season campaign with a 5-0 win over Albion Sports at the Global Stadium, writes John Clothier.

Though a tier below Northern Premier League north/west division outfit Taddy, Sports can take plenty of positives for themselves from a hard-fought game.

On the scoresheet for the Brewers were Rafa Ferreira, Bailey Thompson and Ify Ofoegbu, with Junayd Cassius-Gill netting a brace and subsequently being signed for Taddy.

Jack Vann was missing while Mitch Pattinson was rested following a minor injury in training. Manager Paul Quinn, otherwise, had his full squad ready for action and was able to give the large part of his squad a run-out.

On 12 minutes, Ofoegbu had the ball in the net but was adjudged offside while James Ngoe suffered the same fate having collected a nod on from Cassius-Gill and lobbed the keeper. It felt only a matter of time before Tadcaster would edge in front.

That said, Albion Sports very nearly opened the scoring on 20 minutes with a textbook curling free kick from just outside the area, which needed all of Michael Ingham’s experience to push the ball away to safety.

Taddy's pressure was made to tell on 33 minutes when Corey Roper's inswinging corner caused havoc in the Sports defence and Cassius-Gill got the necessary touch in the goalmouth struggle.

And the Brewers doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time when Omar Sanyang squeezed the ball through to Ferreira, who took it wide before drilling a tight-angled shot into the far corner.

A two-goal advantage at the interval was a fair reflection of the first-half performance from the home side.

It was a completely different Tadcaster team who started the second half and, almost immediately, Bailey Thompson and Marco Basic combined well to put Kevin Santos through but the shot was too high.

The visitors were far from finished - a dangerous cross which needed only a touch went begging, while a goal-bound curling effort smacked against the upright.

Casey Stewart put Bailey Thompson away on a run and he calmly slotted Taddy’s third into the near corner of the net from 12 yards out.

On 77 minutes, Ofoegbu raced through the centre of the park, beat the last defender on the edge of the box and thumped home number four. He almost doubled his tally minutes later when Thompson played him through but the referee blew for a tight offside.

Rose set up the final goal when Cassius-Gill got on the end of his pinpoint pass and coolly rounded a defender and keeper before guiding the ball into an empty net.

Selby Town retained the Eric Lawton Cup at The Fairfax Plant Hire Stadium with a 2-1 win over Goole AFC after a close, hard-fought contest.

For their third game in a week, Town were below-par, lacking in energy, and second-best for much of the match.

In the end, steadfast goalkeeping from Dylan Parkin and sharpshooting from Liam Flanagan were enough to win the day for Selby.

With Luke Sellers injured, manager Christian Fox was forced into one change, with Jon-Paul Vass starting at left-back.

Goole got away an early couple of close efforts in the first minute and Selby had goalkeeper Parkin's sprawling saves to thank for keeping the scoreline level.

This heralded a first 20 minutes where Goole were mainly in the ascendancy, and Town were struggling to put any meaningful passes together.

Goole had speedy wide men in Joe Tasker and Nathan Keighley both proving a real thorn in the side of the Selby back-line. It was only a last-ditch Ryan Gothard tackle that thwarted the latter, while a Tasker goal-bound effort was blocked. The goalkeeper, once again, distinguished himself with a fine save.

Dylan Parkin was required to play sweeper on more than one occasion, as passes were played in behind the Selby defence. One such foray drew loud shouts from the Goole players who felt that the ‘keeper had handled just outside his area. Shortly after the goalkeeper was forced into yet another sharp save to keep Joe Tasker at bay.

As Town found their feet, some good interplay was pushing the Goole defence back, and bringing in the forward players. Josh Street won a free kick in a promising position just outside the area.

It looked like the Goole wall was not positioned well enough to cover the post on their side - and sure enough, Liam Flanagan gave the Robins the lead as he stepped up to curl the free kick around the edge of the wall, and just inside the post.

The Robins were enjoying their own period in the ascendancy, and Flanagan sent them into the break two up. Some good passing set Mark Simpson clear, and he had the vision to play in Flanagan one-on-one with the keeper.

The second half started in similar fashion to the first but it took a late penalty for Reggie Waud to pull one back for the visitors.

Goole pushed for the equaliser but Selby did just enough.