Tadcaster drew 2-2 with Bottesford thanks to Olly Green’s sixth goal of the season and Ryan Gothard’s timely header to take a well-deserved point away from home. Albion boss Ryan Qualter named an unchanged starting lineup which has been a rarity so far this season amidst the club only losing one of their last five in all competitions.

In bitter conditions the game got going straight away with Adam Tweed sweeping a chance from distance wide with less than a minute played, a few minutes later down the other end Julian Otu met a corner at the back post with his effort well saved by Harry Stead.

Green opened the scoring midway through the first half when he raced onto Senior's lofted pass, beating Otu and breaking towards the Bottesford net before calmly slotting his effort into the bottom right corner to give Tadcaster the lead. An end-to-end half drew to a close with Bottesford pushing to find an equaliser, a cross turned shot ended up dipping just under the crossbar with Stead having to make an acrobatic save. On the stroke of half-time, a well-worked move from Bottesford found Jack Varley, who slipped Owen Vincent through on goal with the forward smashing the ball across Stead and into the net to level the game.

Eight minutes into the second half Tadcaster had the first chance through Green bursting into the box before being brought down by Otu, After the penalty appeals were waved away Oli Norman let his frustration be known to the referee, landing him in the sinbin giving Bottesford a man advantage. An advantage they used effectively just after the hour mark, after a corner was swung in and headed past Stead by Henry Moore to give them the lead.
Five minutes later, Green broke away from his marker and managed to get a shot away, which was deflected wide for a corner. Senior's delivery found Green, whose effort on target was cleared off the line into the path of Gothard, and he nodded the ball past the scrambling keeper to level the game once more.

Tadcaster almost grabbed the lead after Senior’s breaching run down the left side ended with him whipping the ball into the path of substitute Noah Kiwomya, with the keeper bearing down he was able to turn his effort on target, but it was well saved. Two minutes later Bottesford had their chance to claim the lead after Jaxon Boreland crafted an opportunity for Jack McMenemy, striking a powerful effort tipped onto the crossbar by Stead. With under 15 minutes to play Tadcaster had another chance following a corner, Senior’s cross found substitute Des Okoro who nodded into the path of Green who couldn’t make the right contact and his chance fell wide.

Tadcaster battled to craft the final chance of the game through substitute Lewis Spellman, receiving the wide ball through from Green and rounding the oncoming keeper just not able to get his footing to get a shot away, passing to Okoro whose shot on target was deflected away. The only booking of the game came in added time after Mason Chaffer was judged to have fouled Green.

The Brewers will hope to build on their best run of form so far this season at home against Handsworth on Saturday afternoon, 3pm.

TADCASTER: Stead, Eastwood, Senior, Gothard, Owen, Davy, Tweed, Metcalfe, Green, Andrew, Norman
Subs: Spellman (Norman), Okoro (Davy), Ward (Tweed), Kiwomya (Andrew), Ibrahimi (Green).

Report by Kieran Crook.
Photo by Jay Taylor.