Promotion Chasers Draw Blank

Taddy boss Billy Miller made two changes to the side that edged past Grimsby Borough in the League Cup with Jordan Armstrong returning from injury and Tom Corner coming in for his debut.

It was the visitors who started the brighter winning three early corners, all coming to nothing though.

It was a flat start from both title chasing sides but the Owls would have certainly been the happier as Alex Flett saw his long range strike whistle wide of the mark.

Cleethorpes went one better and hit the target four minutes later as a long raking diagonal ball to the left hand side was struck on the volley first time by Jon Oglesby who forced Stevens to get down well.

It said a lot about the first 30 minutes that Jimmy Beadle’s wayward strike from 35 yards was the closest Taddy came.

The Owls’ goalkeeper Liam Higton is surely the shortest goalkeeper in the league, by some stretch I imagine also, but he was never phased when The Brewers pumped in a couple corners as the stopper punched well clear.

For a contest that promised so much, it wasn’t a great spectacle as both sides were stuck in first gear and weren’t looking like upping the ante.

At the break midfielder Liam Ormsby was worryingly taken ill and had to be replaced by Adam Baker.

Into the second half and The Brewers raised the tempo, for the first five minutes that is as Higton did brilliantly once again to punch clear Greening’s corner from a heavily crowded penalty box.

Marc Cooper was looking dangerous as ever up front for Cleethorpes as he almost haunted Tadcaster once again with a clever turn and shot making Gary Stevens push clear.

It wasn’t a classic by a long way and it never really looked like sparking into life, however Cleethorpes nearly took the lead nine minutes into the second half in bizarre circumstances. Jon Oglesby clipped a corner in from the left-hand side and goalkeeper Gary Stevens must have took his eye off the ball for a moment which saw him drop the ball behind him but luckily Dan Clayton hooked clear off the line.

The first half wasn’t pretty and it didn’t get any prettier in the second half as the gale force wind picked up making it even more difficult for the players.

The away side were playing the better football as Marc Cooper came close again seeing his downward header pushed clear by Stevens.

Taddy’s chances were few and far between to say the least but their best chance of the afternoon probably arose in the 63rd minute. Josh Greening’s superb delivery from deep in his own half was inches away from being met by debutant Tom Corner. Having said that, it was one of those crosses to which you see fly straight into the back of the net on a weekly basis up and down the leagues so Liam Higton did well once again.

The best passage of play in the match came nine minutes later and it was The Brewers who did turn it on for a couple of seconds but just lacked the finishing touch. Dan Clayton carried the ball down the left hand side for a good thirty yards before shifting to Josh Greening on the edge of the box who tapped first time into Adam Baker, who only needed one touch to return it back to Greening but the tricky attacker’s scuffed effort bobbled agonizingly wide.

This was probably Taddy’s best spell of the afternoon as Tom Corner’s clever touch and volley was promising but never testing the Cleethorpes number one.

Cooper for Cleethorpes had the final attempt on goal in what was a fairly drab encounter which never took off.

All in all a point was probably a fair result as both sides didn’t really do enough to take all three points on a blustery afternoon at the i2i stadium.

Full-Time: Tadcaster Albion 0-0 Cleethorpes Town

Team: Stevens, Armstrong, Clayton, Milne, Anderson, Mycoe, Black (Sellars 68), Ormsby (Baker HT), Corner, Beadle (c), Josh Greening
Unused: Wrigglesworth, Barrett, Conway