Brodsworth MW 0, Pickering Town 2

PICKERING Town will travel to Marske United in the third round of the FA Vase after winning 2-0 at Brodsworth Miners’ Welfare on Saturday.

Remarkably it is the Pikes’ tenth successive away tie in the competition.

The game against Marske, who are currently sixth in the second division of the Northern League, will be played on Saturday, December 6.

Marske caused a big upset in the the second round by winning 1-0 at Northern League first division leaders Consett. Striker Jonathan Newton, a teacher at Norton College, and a former Pikes player, scored the only goal.

Victory against Brodsworth netted the Pikes prize-money of £1,200, thanks to a professional performance on a bobbly pitch and will be hoping to bag another victory and more cash.

After four minutes Liam Salt should have scored for Pickering when he was clean through on a goal, but the home keeper ran out of his goal and beat Salt to the ball. However, after nine minutes Salt made amends when he opened the scoring with a well struck 16-yard right-foot shot after beating two defenders to finish off a good Pikes move which had started with a superb through ball from the right wing by Tony Adams.

Brodsworth’s first attempt on the Pikes goal came after 12 minutes when Phil Horsfield had a deflected effort which hit the Pikes crossbar. The ball rebounded into the Pikes keeper Kevin Martin’s arms.

Two minutes later a good move by Steve Baxter to Chris Batchelor whose left wing cross cum shot was cleared off the line by Craig Williamson.

Brodsworth had a good chance when a right-wing corner taken by Josh Wright was headed by Robert Sanderson but Martin saved well.

After 24 minutes Batchelor and Salt combined skilfully to create a good chance for Luke Ibbetson but his 15-yard - shot went wide.

Brodsworth responded when Horsfield headed wide after good work by Williamson, then Wright headed narrowly wide from a Jake Stannard left wing corner.

Wright then had a 30-yard shot well saved by Martin in what was Brodsworth’s best spell of the game.

Mark Wood’s side came back before half-time when Baxter crossed Adams but Williamson got to the ball first and headed the ball away for a corner.

Pikes skipper Joe Connor cautioned for an outburst of dissent on the stroke of half-time.

The Pikes doubled their lead after 55 minutes when a Connor left-foot right wing corner found centre-back and man of the match Wayne Aziz unmarked and he scored with a 14-yard bullet header.

That was the signal for the Pikes to take firm control with Salt (twice), Ibbetson and Adams all going close to increasing the margin of victory.

Wood said he was delighted with his side’s overall performance in such very difficult playing conditions. “The second half we just took complete control of the game, the second goal just killed them off,” he added.

Pickering Town: Martin, Wrigley, Brunton, Hillier (Eeles 86), Aziz, Connor, Baxter (Williamson 71), Adams, Salt (Ward 65), Ibbetson, Batchelor. Att: 73 On Saturday the Pikes have a vital Northern Councties East League premier division fixture at Winterton Rangers, kick-off 3p am. The coach leaves the Recreation Club at 11.45am.

Winterton were also on FA Vase duty on Saturday, beating Ashington 3-1.

The Pikes remain second in the with 31 points from 15 games while Winterton are 13th with 21 points from only 13 games.

When the two sides clashed at Pickering on September 20 the game ended in a 1-1 draw, so both sides will be going all out for the three points on Saturday and a great game is in prospect.

The Pikes have had no date given them as yet for last Tuesday’s postponed League Cup tie at Arnold Town.