Pickering Town 2 Boro 1

6th March 2010

Report by Stuart Fairbridge:-

Boro’s poor run of results and discipline continued as they suffered another sending off and another defeat, this time against Pickering Town at a chilly Mill Lane.

With Carl Wood, Danny Moore and Dave Kemp all suspended, plus Paddy Miller ruled out for a month with medial knee ligament damage, there were four changes to the starting line up from the Parkgate defeat.

In came Craig Evans, Richard Medcalf, Michael Gibson, and new signing from Bridlington Town Craig Palmer.

Boro started the game on the back foot and keeper Glenn Powley had to be alert to turn away a header from Michael McNaughton, then the home side were denied an early lead two minutes later, Liam Salt netted after a mistake by Dave Hartas, but he was flagged offside.

Then Salt again had a chance but he somehow fired wide with only Powley to beat, Boro were really struggling to make any impact in the game, but should have been awarded a penalty on the half hour mark.

After good work by Graham Botham and Ryan Blott, the ball eventually came to Scott Phillips, whose shot was cleared by Sam Burns, the rebound fell to the aforementioned Phillips who was clearly obstructed by Kevin Martin, unfortunately for Boro the referee waved play on.

Three minutes later and even better chance fell to the visitors, but somehow Gibson managed to fire wide from three yards from a Botham free kick.

Boro were to rue these chances when two minutes before the break, Pickering took the lead, Clough who was a threat all afternoon, broke clear of the Boro defence, and despite running wide, was upended by Powley, giving the referee no option than to point to the spot, the kick was taken by Tom Adams who sent Powley the wrong way.

Boro could and should have equalized almost immediately, when a cross from the left found a totally unmarked Danny Gray, but he sliced his shot wide from close range.

The second half began with Medcalf going on a run down the left but with no end product, then Clough going close at the other end, firing just wide of Powley’s left hand upright.

Ten minutes into the half Boro’s job became twice as difficult when Medcalf was needlessly sent off after a two-footed challenge on Pickering keeper Martin, this meant he became the ninth Boro player to be dismissed this season.

Boro made their first change on the hour, when Mark Griffin replaced Gray, but it was still the home side looking dangerous and it needed Powley to make two fantastic one on one saves against firstly Ricky Greening, then Salt.

Unfortunately ten minutes later, he couldn’t do anything about Pickering’s second. Clough, who gave Boro full back Mike Price a torrid afternoon, broke down the right and provided the perfect cross for Salt to tap into an empty net.

Boro to their credit did not let their heads drop, and despite being a man down, then dominated for the remaining twenty-five minutes of the game.

The first real opportunity to get a goal back fell to Hartas, but after a free kick was cleared to him at the edge of the area, his first time volley went inches the wrong side of the post.

Two minutes later though, Boro did halve the deficit, when a long clearance from the back was controlled by Blott, he turned inside McNaughton, before hitting a great left foot shot from twenty five yards over Martin and into the roof of the net.

Boro made another change straight after replacing Evans with striker Paul Routledge, which meant Boro were playing a 3-2-4 formation, this system lead to gaps at the back but Powley was proving to be inspired with another good save from Clough.

Back came Boro, and they really should have equalised minutes later, when Palmer had a free run on goal from the half way line, but waited too long allowing Martin to save at his feet.

Then Griffin produced a cross from the right wing, which was straight at Martin, and the Pickering keeper was on hand to clear two dangerous looking crosses from Price.

Now it was just a constant wave of Boro attacks against albeit some resolute home defending, and a minute from time former Boro favourite Dave Thompson replaced man of the match Clough to help bolster their midfield.

The officials added five minutes of injury time, in which Boro created two excellent opportunities to level the game, firstly Griffin produced a perfect cross from the right wing, which found its way to Routledge at the back post, but his half volley was just wide, then after a bit of a scramble in the area the ball fell to an onrushing Griffin, but his well struck shot was spectacularly tipped over by Martin.

Another away defeat for Boro, but if they can play the whole 90 minutes like the last 25, and cut out the needless mistakes and red cards, things can only get better (we hope!)

Boro: Powley, Evans (Routledge 78), Price, Hartas, Gibson, Botham (c), Gray (Griffin 60), Phillips, Blott, Palmer, Medcalf, Goal: Blott 77, Booked: Powley, Price, Phillips, Sent Off: Medcalf. Unused Sub: Webb.

Pickering Town: Martin, Johnson, Burns, Aziz, McNaughton (c), Hepples, Wrigley, Adams, Greening, Salt, Clough (Thompson 89), Goals: Adams (pen) 43, Salt 68. Unused Subs: Jenkinson, Nuttall.

Attendance: 504.

Referee: S. Clayton.