Pickering Town manager Mitch Cook expects to resume touchline duties tomorrow when his side travel to Garforth, writes Toby Latham.

Cook was sent to the stands after a heated exchange with assistant referee Ben Naylor during last weekend’s 3-1 Northern Counties East League premier division defeat to big-spending Brighouse.

Cook’s son, Nathan, was also sent off after committing two bookable offences during a feisty encounter which ended the Pikes’ goal-laden good run.

The manager refused to comment on his own red card in case he “got in trouble”, but said: “No-one has told me I can’t be on the touchline (tomorrow) and so I will be there.”

He added: “The red card for the player was warranted and was down to naivety on his part.”

The defeat, after a run of 22 goals in three wins, meant the Pikes dropped to ninth in the table, but Cook was encouraged by what he saw.

He said: “Except for two individual errors, we matched them throughout, even when we went down to ten men.”

Tadcaster Albion will look to extend their lead at the top of the table when they host sixth-placed Albion Sports tomorrow.

A late equaliser by Thackley’s James Firth last weekend saw Taddy drop two points allowing Barton Town Old Boys to cut the gap to three points.

But the Brewers increased their unbeaten league run to 24 games and are hoping to continue that when they face an Albion side left reeling from a 3-1 defeat to struggling Parkgate.

Their hopes of passing the NCEL premier division record of 26 games unbeaten – set by Scarborough Athletic last season on their way to promotion – were dealt a blow with the loss of goalkeeper Leon Wrigglesworth and centre-back Mathew Sparks to injury last week. But manager Paul Marshall has custodian cover should Wrigglesworth remain sidelined and he stayed confident of victory.

“It was a good, positive result last weekend and the players are confident going into every game having maintained our unbeaten record for so long,” he said.