With Brighouse comfortably winning the NCEL Premier title on Saturday, the match at Ings Lane was a battle for second place, and both teams were determined to take the three points.

Despite going behind to an early goal, Tadcaster pulled it back to 1-1 before half time, and went on to score the 2-1 winner in the 80th minute.

Paul said: “It was a great result. The performance wasn’t the best, but it was a difficult game against a very physical team.

“It gives us a four point cushion over Barton with one game to go, so it was a huge result for us.

“I think we had a bit more to play for than them, as they haven’t applied for promotion, so even if they finished in second place and there was a reshuffle of the leagues, they wouldn’t be going up.

“We took our chances a little bit better than they did. They had a couple of very good chances but fortunately for us they missed them.

“We started very slowly and for the first 20 minutes they were on top – taking the lead through Gareth Barlow in the seventh minute.

“Then in the second part of the first half we seemed to get on top, and equalised through a Carl Stewart penalty after some good work from Danny Critchlow. Danny got fouled by their full back when trying to take him on.

“In the second half we started brightly, but we tailed off and they got back into the game. They had a really good chance with a header but they missed it.

“We then brought young Mitch Hamilton on who danced round their full back and pulled it back for the captain Nick Thommo who scored with a Steven Gerrard style finish.

“I was really pleased for Thommo. The desire he shows is always brilliant. If we had 11 Nick Thompsons on our team, we would win a lot of matches.

“Overall, I’d say it was a hard working performance against a strong Barton team. You can see why they don’t lose many games. They are a big and powerful side.

“We didn’t play the football we like to play, but that’s the nature of the game in this league.”

This Saturday, The Brewers play their final game of the season away to Liversedge who have lost their last five games and are currently 20th in the league.

“Liversedge are a strange team” said Paul. “They beat teams when you don’t expect them to and they lose to teams when they’re expected to win.

“They’re probably a good standard in the NCEL Premier who can beat anybody but also lose to anybody. It will be a difficult game, but we want to finish the season with another win and get second place. Only then will we know if promotion is possible.”

Saturday’s game against Liversedge kicks off at 3pm.