After three straight defeats, Taddy returned to winning ways last week with a 3-1 victory at Frickley Athletic and we caught up with Chris Howarth to get his thoughts on the recent events.

“It was a massive win to keep our play-off hopes alive” started Howarth.

“In the first half I didn’t think we were our usual selves, the pitch was the worst pitch I’ve set foot on for that standard.”

“I think that gave Frickley the advantage but it’s not an excuse to not work hard. The second half was completely different, we tweaked the formation which gave us a more attacking approach and the work-rate and team spirit was second to none.”

The versatile defender trudged off mid-way through the second half and looked to be in real discomfort.

“Unfortunately in the first half I went for a 50/50, I got to the ball first but the Frickley player went through my leg resulting in me getting a dead leg just before half-time. I was trying to keep it moving at the break to stop it getting worse, second half we went on to get the equaliser and started to get more possession but I couldn’t carry on as much as I tried to. It’s still a bit bruised but I’ll shake it off for today.”

It’s been a difficult few weeks for Simon Collins’ men with the target of play-offs suffering a huge dent.

“Against Pontefract I thought we started brightly and had more of the chances in the first half and should have been in front at the break. Unfortunately this came back to bite us a bit as they seemed to get the rub of the green getting a penalty which in my eyes was soft.

Then they relentlessly kept going forward resulting in them getting the victory in the end. We could have nicked a draw in the but it wasn’t to be.”

“Going into Stamford after a loss with a 200 mile round trip was never going to be easy and I will leave it at that as we just didn’t turn up and couldn’t get to grips with their formation. Second half we seemed to get more possession but it was too late.”

“We needed a reaction massively against our local rivals Ossett. It was a game we all thought we did enough to get a result in, for me they weren’t one of the better sides we have played but they seem to get that bit of luck they needed for example getting a soft penalty which even their lads were laughing about.

We switched off for their second goal but managed to claw one back when I clipped a ball to Jason Mycoe but it was too late again.”

“Overall it was far better and this gave us a bit more confidence going into the Frickley game.”

As another season comes to a close, is the experienced former Farsley man looking to continue next year?

“100%. I am looking to continue next season, nothing has been mentioned as of yet but we are just concentrating on the remaining fixtures and then take it from there.”

With two games in two days over the long Easter weekend, Howarth is aiming for nothing less than 6 points out of 6 to keep their aspirations alive.

“Gresley and Pickering won’t be a walk in the park as we know from earlier on in the season. Pickering will want to prove a point again as they have a few ex-Taddy players and that’s probably the game we most want to win to get one over on them.

It’s up to us now to make sure that the little slip we had is put behind us and get the 6 points putting pressure on the teams above because you never know what can happen.”

#ATAW