Collins fumes as Taddy suffer opening-day loss to Carlton

Those were the words that Si Collins used to describe the performance of the Tadcaster Albion's players following an opening-day defeat to Carlton Town.

The Brewers produced a below-par showing in Saturday's Evo-Stik East clash at the i2i Stadium, and assistant manager Collins pulled no punches in his post-match assessment of his side's display

"I'm really annoyed, it's just not good enough," he said.

"I thought we were lazy, laboured, you could see it a little bit in the warm-up and we took it into the game.

"We got to half-time at 0-0 and we've even talked about it again and said 'you can't start like you did in the first 15 minutes again, there were too many mistakes', and they [the players] have come out second half and done their own thing again.

"We're really upset. We didn't want to start the season like this, so we've got to bounce back on Tuesday."

Carlton started the contest much the brighter of the sides and Albion initially struggled to get out of their own half.

The match was just five minutes old when Taddy's Leeds United loanee goalkeeper Harrison Male was called into action for the first time, pushing a half-volley from full-back Oliver Robinson onto his upright.

At the other end, a couple of neat touches from Ellis Barkworth and Aiden Savory set Casey Stewart free to drive into the penalty area, only for the Brewers forward to jink inside and fire straight at Jack Steggles in the Town goal.

Stewart went even closer to finding the net moments later when heading Aaron Hardy’s clipped free-kick on target, only for Steggles to superbly spring a hand up in double-quick time to tip over.

Steggles continued to impress, saving from both Mitch Langton and Savory, and the teams went into the interval with the game still goalless.

After a slow start, there were positive signs for Albion heading into the second half, however, it was Carlton who came out looking the more likely after the break and they took the lead on 56 minutes.

Riece Bertram’s lofted free-kick proved to be the hosts' undoing as Male came to punch but misjudged the flight of the ball and this allowed Robinson to find the back of the home net.

With 20 minutes left on the clock the Brewers began to push hard for an equaliser and substitute Josh Barrett's powerful strike flew narrowly wide before fellow replacement Joe Lumsden saw a volley held by Steggles.

The visiting gloveman then pulled off another impressive stop to keep out Stewart with 10 minutes to go.

Hardy’s free-kick was nodded down by Harry Coates and instinctively nodded towards the corner by Stewart, only for Steggles to fly to his left and push clear.

Albion had another chance to draw level when Billy Whitehouse set Lumsden in behind, but the striker couldn’t quite touch the ball round the advancing Steggles who gleefully claimed.

With the Brewers throwing numbers forward in the hope of salvaging something, they were left wide open on the counter and Town almost exploited this when substitute Mamoke Akaunu burst into the box but was denied brilliantly by Male.

The points were however well and truly sealed three minutes from time, Aaron Opoku beautifully bending a free-kick around the wall and into the back of Male's net from 25 yards out.

Tadcaster will look to bounce back on Tuesday evening when they travel to Sheffield FC, 7.45pm kick-off.