Magnificent Taddy scoop title
TADCASTER Albion have won the first trophy in their 108-year history, after a dramatic final day win landed them the NCEL Division One title.
Taddy’s Mike Braithwaite pounced to score five minutes from time in Tuesday night’s crucial match against Hemsworth Miners Welfare, clinching the championship and sending his team to the Premier Division.
Manager Paul Marshall said: “It’s a massive, massive achievement for everyone at the club.
“For a small club like Tadcaster to turn itself around and win the football league, I can’t explain how it feels.
“I was looking at some of the old supporters who’ve been there for 50 or 60 years and the smiles on their faces - you can’t put a price on that.
“The team, the players, have made so many people happy and to be able to do that is one of the best feelings in the world.”
Taddy needed to win their last two games to lift the league winners’ trophy.
If they had drawn either, they would have missed out on promotion altogether.
They overcame Yorkshire Amateur 4-0 on Saturday, without ever being at their best, Braithwaite scoring twice, along with Darren Brandon (pen) and Kevin Smith.
Albion then left two-goal Braithwaite on the bench for the title decider against Hemsworth Miners, played out in front of a mammoth crowd of 450, and went behind inside 90 seconds as Damien Liddle lobbed ‘keeper Tom Ryder from distance.
“We could have conceded again in the first 15 minutes, but after that we got our act together and started playing football,” Marshall said.
“The players really rallied round at half-time and went out and played them off the park.”
Danny Pitts, who Marshall praised as his side’s “Captain Marvel”, got the equaliser with 25 minutes to go.
And then - with the clock ticking down - super sub Braithwaite capitalised on an error by Miners keeper Dale Walstow to send Taddy into dreamland.
“You begin to think you’re not going to get that winner,” Marshall said.
“Their ‘keeper had a great game, but we told the lads to keep following their shots in as he might drop one on the bobbly pitch.”
Marshall and his backroom staff ran onto the pitch after the goal, “just jumping around like kids”.
“After that I went round behind our goal to defend with the lads for the last five minutes, and those five minutes seemed to last forever,” he said.
“I kept on saying to the lads: ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry, it’s coming’ - I was trying to believe it myself.”
Marshall said the celebrations had been “unbelievable”, with “a feeling that you can’t describe to those that have not been involved in non-league football”.
Afterwards, he paid tribute to his team, saying: “They have had a resilience about them all season, even when we have played poorly.
“We have lost four games in the league this season, but we should have lost more. We have had that determination and that desire to take what we can from every game.
“The whole 20-man squad has been really superb.”
Marshall thanked president Kevin Derry and treasurer James Hamilton, who have helped him through his season as the chairman. Former Harrogate Railway supremo Rob Northfield will now take over that post.
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Weather for Wetherby
Sunday 05 February 2012
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