TADCASTER Albion produced a thrilling pre-season 3-3 draw with near-neighbours Knaresborough Town, writes John Clothier.

New signing Junayd Cassius-Gill was on the scoresheet once again for the Northern Premier League north/west division outfit against the Northern Counties East League premier division visitors.

Paul Quinn had 19 players fit for the game and used all of them to test the squad against a strong Boro team. Several Taddy regulars were missing as a result of minor injuries picked up against Albion Sports and in training, while Boro featured former Brewers Gregg Anderson and Dan Thirkell.

The visitors made a strong start and it was no surprise when, on 16 minutes, Brad Walker skipped into the six-yard box and slotted beyond the Taddy keeper.

Parity was restored on 22 minutes when Marco Basic charged down the right flank, crossed the ball into the box where Ify Ofoegbu turned through 180 degrees before thundering his shot into the top corner of the net.

Ofoegbu fired high and wide from a difficult angle and, on 30 minutes, collected a through ball from Bailey Thompson but the shot lacked pace.

It was end-to-end pressure and Albion had to thank Dan Hartley for stopping an attack down the left and a possible one-on-one with Aaron Burn.

With a minute to go before the interval, Thompson out-jumped the Boro defence from Jake Rose’s cross and headed the ball into the top corner of the net.

The one-goal advantage at the break was welcome for the hosts but, in all truth, there was little between these two combative sides.

On 51 minutes, Tom Dugdale equalised for the visitors courtesy of a huge deflection and, minutes later, a perfectly positioned Burn saved well from Anderson’s header.

By the hour, the hosts were back in front as Cassius-Gill finished Jake Rose’s run and cross from the right flank and thumped the ball into the back of the net.

But it was a short-lived lead as Knaresborough broke down the left, Harris’s low shot gave Burn little chance.

Selby Town suffered their first defeat of pre-season when they fell to two late Pontefract Collieries goals in a 2-1 loss, writes Phil Dearnley.

Josh Street gave the Robins the lead just after the half-hour mark but the higher-tier Colls fought back through Albert Ibrahimi and Damian Reeves.

With 33 minutes on the clock, a cute ball from Jon-Paul Vass found Street making a run towards the near post. In a surprising amount of space, he had no trouble in rifling the ball into the net for Town’s opening goal.

As the second half wore on, however, a Pontefract equaliser was looking inevitable, and it duly arrived in the 78th minute. Ibrahimi had been a tricky thorn in the side of the Selby defence all game, but they will not be pleased with the ease with which he was able to dribble across the penalty area, tired defenders in his wake, before he slotted the ball across Dylan Parkin and into the net.

The pressure was on Selby. Parkin had to parry a shot, with the rebound blasted over. As proceedings became more heated, the referee handed out a booking after Brad Freer was chopped down.

But Selby were unable to hold out and conceded the winner. Pontefract had acres of space on Selby’s left, and a cross was fired in. Completely unchallenged, Reeves rose to power the ball into the despondent Robins' net.