RYAN Qualter admitted that Tadcaster Albion are having a better season than expected with the Brewers well within the play-off race, having passed the halfway point of the season. They currently occupy fourth position in the Northern Counties Eastern League Premier Division with 21 games played and 38 points so far, plus having a game in hand on both Handsworth and Beverley Town above them.

A play-off finish would be seen as an impressive achievement for Albion, who finished in 17th spot in the NCEL last campaign and just two places above the relegation zone.

That saw a change in the dugout at the Young Guns Arena in the Summer, with Qualter arriving as the new man in charge of Tadcaster.

11 wins, 5 draws and 5 defeats so far this season sees Qualter’s record look promising, with the Brewers approaching the festive period and the second-half of the season.

“We’re delighted,” Qualter told the Press.
We can’t hide behind the fact that it’s probably gone better than we anticipated. We always knew behind-the-scenes how much hard work went on in pre-season, with recruitment. We put a lot of work in. We knew that we had the capabilities to do it - it’s about putting that out onto the pitch consistently.
In the first-half of the season, bar the last few weeks really and the last few results, it’s been a really good start for us. We’re not getting complacent, we fully think that we deserve to be where we are, but there’s a lot of hard work to be done.
We’re getting into the festive period and are past the halfway stage, so to be in fourth position and in those play-offs, it’s a big positive for us.”

Qualter’s arrival in the Summer brought a promise of a new brand of football at the Young Guns Arena. At this level of football, a change of management in the NCEL usually brings an exodus of player departures within clubs, but for Tadcaster, they were able to retain the core of their team from the previous campaign.
With the added new faces to the group, Qualter has been pleased with how Taddy have bought into his style of play, saying:

“It is a new group, but a big mention to the lads that stayed as well. A new manager means that they will bring in different philosophies, different kinds of players, but it’s not just the new players that we’ve brought to the club.
“We are relatively a new group, we played a couple of weeks back and me and Spenno [Spencer Harris, assistant manager] were saying that since the start of the season, we’ve only really had to bring in new bodies when we’ve had injuries.
We’ve had a group now that has been together since the last couple of games of pre-season, which is really a credit to them. They’ve kept their places, they’ve kept the shirts and they’ve kept their position in the squad, that’s the type of group that they are.
They are a very hard-working bunch; at times I think that we probably push them a bit too far when we haven’t got a game, because we’ll train religiously. Sometimes that works for you, sometimes it goes against you, but they’ve put in a lot of commitment.
That’s really pleasing to see. They’ve settled in well as a group, as a team, and their commitment to work hard has been really pleasing.”

After a promising winning run to start the season, Tadcaster have hit something of a slump in recent weeks, being winless in their last five.
They had held a comfortable lead against Wakefield in the NCEL Cup, only to have the match abandoned due to weather – but defeats against Eccleshill United, Campion and Handsworth, and draws against Golcar United and Beverley Town, has Albion chasing a change in form.
A major reason behind the Brewers’ spiralling in form has been because of player unavailability, meaning Qualter has had to dip into the transfer market lately.
Qualter admitted:

“It really has been a challenge, since the Pickering game and in the next few games after that, we probably had seven or eight really key players missing. That was through injuries and lads that were on holiday mid-season, which I’m not too sure about - we’ll have to have a think about that one!
We’ve lost Alex Clark; he’s gone travelling for six to seven months, which is a shame because he was really coming into his stride.
We’ve lost people, like every club in this league does, it’s not just us that gets injuries. People also have family and work commitments, I’m fully aware of that.
I’ve been speaking to the managers around the league and it’s been a really challenging time for a lot of teams and managers. Sometimes it’s taken out of your hands and you can’t do much about it.
With the amount of games that we’ve played as well, especially towards the beginning of the season, lads are going to pick up injuries because of the intensity of the games.
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had to work tirelessly to bring new faces in, but we haven’t just thrown a blanket over it and said ‘he’ll do’, we’ve identified players we’ve wanted to bring in and sometimes we’ve got them, sometimes we haven’t.

Tadcaster will hope that their form will turn in the coming weeks, with the fixtures coming thick and fast in the festive period.
Qualter is excited for the matches to come;

“We’re really looking forward to the next four or five weeks, I like football around Christmas,” Qualter enthused, “I always enjoyed playing in it.
We have got a lot of games, but we’re really excited. We feel we’ve got lads back - key players returning from injuries and from excursions abroad, so we’re really looking forward to the next few weeks; It’s always a great time of the year for the festive period.”

A positive "off of the pitch" for Tadcaster this season has been a rise in attendances, which Qualter has been pleased by:

It’s an old saying in football, but if you’re winning on the pitch, you’ll bring more people through the door.
We know that but a big shoutout to the board, the chairman, the volunteers around the club. Sometimes the work doesn’t get seen with how much they do to increase those gates, I think people forget that an extra ten people a week is a massive increase for this level of football.
We’ve been really pleased with the support that we’ve had, and you can see it in the clubhouse after games. It’s a nice environment to go in - a lot of the fans stay and we make sure that the players go in after a game for at least 45 minutes.
We want that spirit, we want that ethos around the club.
The support away and at home has been excellent.
As long as we keep doing our job on the pitch, hopefully it can continue to rise.”