Taddy look to bounce back from Cables loss

After back-to-back away victories, the Brewers lost out to a solitary goal on a difficult pitch on Merseyside at the weekend, slipping down to 11th place in the Evo-Stik Division One North Standings in the process.

But Billy Miller’s side can climb back into the play-off positions with a victory over fifth-placed Town, should other results go their way on the night.

On Saturday, boss Miller made four changes from the side that won in the League Cup at Frickley Athletic with Josh Greening, Conor Sellars, Josh Grant and Gregg Anderson all back in from the start.

Tom Corner was only fit enough for a place on the substitutes’ bench after going off in the opening 10 minutes in midweek with a hamstring injury, and Albion were to lose a player in the early stages once again.

Anderson was making his first start after recovering from knee surgery, but unfortunately the defender pulled up inside 12 minutes with a hamstring injury of his own.

Fatlum Ibrahimi was the man to come, on which mean that Jason Mycoe had to revert back to right-back and Josh Barrett once again shifted across to centre-half.

The pitch at Prescot had passed a 10am inspection and there’s no doubting that the sandy and uneven patches across the turf made it difficult for both sides to play any kind of attractive football.

Dan Thirkell did well to set Rob Youhill in behind the Cables defence but some good covering by Brad Johnstone forced the winger into rushing his shot.

The home side threatened to break the deadlock as they got in behind several times and they should have at least made Brewers stopper Gary Stevens make a save in the 24th minute.

Defender Ben Cartwright did brilliantly to dribble the ball from his own half all the way to the right-hand by-line before pulling back to James Edgar who completely missed his kick from close range.

Taddy’s best chance of the half came nine minutes from the break when Josh Greening cleverly flicked back inside Valter Fernandes but tamely side-footed on target making it comfortable for Phil Priestley in the Cables goal.

It was an opening period of very few chances, but the second half saw a goal inside 20 seconds, albeit in bizarre circumstances.

There looked to be no danger as Prescot drove forward from the kick-off and Andy Milne shielded the ball back to goalkeeper Stevens until the ball took a wicked bounce, changing direction in the meantime and falling perfectly for Dom Marie who guided into the empty net.

Despite Marie’s goal, the visitors took charge of possession and looked comfortable for the most part, but just struggled to carve out any real clear-cut chances.

As the half ticked on and Taddy pushed increasingly harder for a way back into the contest, the door was left slightly ajar at the back.

Marie had a glorious chance to seal the three points after being set one on one with Stevens, but the Taddy gloveman saved superbly with his foot.

With just under 20 minutes to go, central defender Milne was moved up into the centre-forward position to give Taddy a greater target to hit.

As much as Miller’s men dominated the final part of the match, they created next to nothing as long-range efforts from Grant and Ibrahimi both failed to test Priestley.

Prescot continued to work incredibly hard off the ball in the closing stages and dug in when required, eventually holding on to claim all three points.