LIFELESS Tadcaster Albion continued their horrendous slump with another heavy home defeat.

The Brewers lost 3-0 at home to Northern Counties East League division one mid-tablers Winterton Rangers to extend their winless run to 15 - the last nine of which have yielded no points.

Saturday's less-than-inspired showing confirmed the fears of outgoing manager Wayne Day that his side have simply given up since he announced in February he was quitting at the end of the season.

Jay Sobers deservedly opened the scoring for Winterton ten minutes after half time with a powerful close range finish before a goalkeeping error combined with disastrous marking allowed Gary Dickinson to head home unmarked at the far post from a 57th minute corner.

A sweet free kick, again by Sobers, wrapped things up for the visitors, who could have easily won by double that score had a number of close-range chances not been sliced into the gardens of neighbouring houses.

Barry Rankin had the best chance to claim something for Tadcaster but he instead squandered his gilt-edged opportunity on the stroke of half time, while lively young forward Matty Howgate managed to find the net with the score at 1-0, only for the referee to rule it out for offside.

Tadcaster worked hard but lacked focus as even the most basic of passes went wayward and tempers frayed as the frustration set in.

Manager Day was also feeling the frustration. He said: "The average age of the players out there today was about 21. We had four youth players and one 16-year-old and in the first 11, we only had two or three regular seniors along with eight juniors.

"Normally, you have eight seniors and perhaps two or three juniors so the balance is completely wrong and that showed in their attitude.

"But I'm not making excuses. I'm disappointed because the performance was poor and I know they can do a lot better than that."

Harrogate Town clinched qualification to the new Conference North with a 4-3 UniBond League premier division victory at Blyth Spartans.

It was their third win on the trot but they were made to work hard by relegation-threatened Spartans.

Simon Sturdy headed Town in front after a free-kick by former York City man Mark Atkins came back off the bar.

Wayne Phillips levelled for Blyth but Marc Smith regained the lead for Town and when Sturdy nodded in his second shortly after half-time to make it 3-1 it looked as though it would be plain sailing for the men from Wetherby Road.

But Chris Joyce pulled a goal back inside two minutes and the scoring flurry continued when another former Minsterman James Turley made it 4-2 with the best goal of the game.

That re-established Town's control but Blyth made it a tense final 20 minutes when Anthony Woodhouse scored for the battling home side.

In the Northern Counties East league premier division, Pickering Town's hopes suffered a bad blow when they were beaten 3-1 at the Recreation Ground by Eastwood Town. Alex Wilgrass got the only Pikes goal on 54 minutes.

Selby Town were disappointed not to have picked up maximum points when they were held 2-2 at Flaxley Road by Glasshoughton Welfare.

An Andrew Hart penalty and a Joe Gaughan strike had put the Robins 2-0 up but within sixty seconds of Gaughan's strike, Martin Woolford pulled a goal back and in the final minute Lee Parker netted a dramatic equaliser.

The results meant that Pickering and Selby lost ground on the leading sides, who all won. Mickey Norbury's goal gave leaders Osett Albion a 1-0 home win against Armthorpe Welfare, Brigg Town beat Brodsworth 5-1 and Sheffield turned on the style to beat Mickleover Sports 3-1.

Goole kept in the running when Darren Fell's strike gave them a 1-0 win at Buxton. The only goal came four minutes after half-time when his shot squeezed past the goalkeeper at the near post.

Harrogate Railway were held to a 0-0 draw at Station View by Thackley.

Updated: 10:27 Monday, April 12, 2004