DERBY duel honours were shared between hosts Pickering Town and Tadcaster Albion.

Visitors Albion fought back from a Billy Logan opener in the 54th minute with a leveller 12 minutes later from Tom Claisse, the share-all of the points hailed as something to build on after a traumatic week.

First, they bowed out of the FA Vase quarter-finals in a controversial replay at home to Highworth Town on a day when their grip on the Northern Counties East League premier division summit was prised off. They also lost 3-2 to Barton Town Old Boys to take their run to three straight defeats.

On a day when Worksop beat Shaw Lane Aquaforce to widen the gap at the top between them to seven points - Albion having only one game in hand on the new title pace-setters - manager Paul Marshall said: “After three defeats we needed to stop the rot, so hopefully this is something we can work on for the last nine games.”

Marshall conceded the Pikes could have been 2-0 up at half-time only to be thwarted by goalkeeper Pete Lawrie, but once Claisse levelled, Albion applied all the pressure.

“It’s always a tough task at Pickering but we just could not break them down,” he said.

In division one of the NCEL, there were home defeats for both Selby Town and Knaresborough.

Selby opened the scoring after a mere two minutes against Worsbrough Bridge Athletic through Matthew Turnbull.

But fortunes were turned dramatically shortly after the hour when the visitors hit two goals in three minutes to seal the points.

As the Robins crashed, Knaresborough were toppled 3-0 by Louth.

Home was not a troubled place for either Harrogate Railway Athletic or Scarborough Athletic in their respective Evo-Stik League first division north missions.

The Rail saw off Lancashire outfit Padiham 2-0 thanks to a brace of goals bagged in the space of 12 second-half minutes by Malachi Farquharson, while the Seadogs too had a two-goal ace in their pack to send Radcliffe Borough packing. Thomas Corner kept them on the winning track with a goal either side of half-time.

No such maximum plunder for Harrogate Town, whose bid for a Conference North three points at home was unhinged by visiting Hyde United’s stoppage-time leveller from Perry Ng.

Town had earlier forged into the lead through Paul Clayton after he was neatly put in by new signing, defender Ryan Fallowfield shortly before half-time.