Pickering Town boss delighted with Pikes' season start

A superb opening day of the season saw Pickering overcome a two goal deficit to claim a 4-2 triumph over Frickley Athletic, before a chaotic 3-3 stalemate with Knaresborough Town on Tuesday evening.

Some sides in the NCEL have played as many as four games, but due to cup replays and postponements, Pickering have only managed to fulfil two fixtures so far.

Hackworth is happy with the unbeaten start to the league that his side have secured and will now turn his attention to the FA Vase, with the Pikes beginning their cup campaign with a home match under the lights on Friday, August 23 (7.45pm).

“[Pre-season has gone] really well, it’s a new look squad to freshen things up, in terms of personnel," Hackworth told Pickering's club media.

“They’ve worked extremely hard, it was a seven or eight week pre-season of three sessions a week, and the boys have adapted to it extremely well to come out of the back end of it probably the fittest they have ever been."

“It’s a credit to the lads really, they’ve worked extremely hard since they’ve come in.

“There’s an energy about them, we want to go and attack teams and we want to go and take the game to teams.

“They are always entertaining games, we can score goals but we concede, it would be nice to keep more clean sheets but we’re working hard on that.

“From a fans point of view, I can imagine it will be exciting.

“It is [pleasing], defensively we are working really hard on the training ground and as I say, we have got more firepower this season and creativity.

“We will score goals which is a massive bonus for us, but we just need to be more compact, especially away from home.

“We’ve got some really tough fixtures and a run of five away in the league coming up.

“We’ve got to be more resilient and harder to beat really.

“I can’t knock how we’ve started the season, if you asked me before the season if we would take four points from the first two games, then I would have took it.

“It’s just bitterly disappointing to have dropped two points last night [Tuesday] from a great position.

“We’re in the middle of the table but it’s not what I like, or what the players would have wanted for a stop-start to the season.

“It is what it is, we can’t do anything about it, cup replays and games postponed at this level.

“We’ve got another nine day rest, we’ll get on the training pitch and work hard for the game at home to Newcastle Benfield.

“Equally it’s like any game, we take any game serious but it would be great to have a run in the Vase.

“We’re on our home patch on a Friday night and there should be a good crowd there, fingers crossed for a positive performance.”

Hackworth has also been impressed by the level of recruitment that his side have conducted, and feels that his side are in a much healthier position than they were when the 2023/24 season ended.

Pickering Town have enjoyed an unbeaten start to the Northern Counties Eastern League premier division season. (Image: Ellen Thornton)

Pickering have so far scored seven goals in their opening two league matches, with Hackworth delighted by the firepower his side now possess.

Hackworth explained: “Last season, apart from the starting 11, we were a bit short on numbers in different departments of the field.

“Especially going forward and in the final third, I think you’ll find that this year and especially now, we’ve got more options to come off of the bench which is pleasing.

“Kieran Stares last night, he came off of the bench and grabbed his goal and his chance.

“Harry [Jessop] in the first game against Frickley scored a couple of goals, last night you had Nathan Dyer and Joe Wood to chip in.

“It’s what I asked for in pre-season.”

Pickering were close to a second straight win before their clash with Knaresborough ended in a dramatic 3-3 draw, with the Pikes heading into the half-time break with a 2-0 lead.

A complete turnaround in the second-half saw Knaresborough hold a 3-2 advantage, before substitute Stares salvaged a point with an 83rd minute strike.

Hackworth hopes for his side to find more consistency, and admitted that Tuesday night’s draw felt more like two points dropped, rather than one point gained: “We spoke a lot to the squad about consistency, and putting performances in for the 90 minutes together.

“Up until half-time last night we were delighted with our business, putting ourselves into a great position and being 2-0 up.

“All of the thoughts at half-time were to keep it the same, put it into their box in the second-half and to pick up where we left off in the first.

"For whatever reason, we didn’t display that in the second-half which was bitterly disappointing.

“We spoke about it after the game because for us and the position we were in, it felt like two points dropped last night.

“We spoke about it at half-time, about how they were going to come out of the blocks.

“They were being beaten 2-0 and hadn’t had the best of starts to the season, it’s how we have to be compact and keep our work and effort levels up.

“We knew they were going to be direct and they’ve caught us with a couple of soft goals on our part, and got themselves back into the game.

“It’s just about setting traps, recognising when we can go and press and going and winning that ball high up the pitch.

“For the first-half we did it really, really well, to the point where if we took the chances that we created then we could have come in four up at half-time.

“That’s how well we played, up until that point.”