Brighouse and Thackley celebrate away wins (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Brighouse and Thackley celebrate away wins

6:29pm Sunday 29th January 2012 in Thackley By Ian Whiting

A solid first-half performance was enough for Brighouse to overcome Arnold Town 3-1 in the Baris Northern Counties East League Premier Division.

Brighouse broke the deadlock midway through the first half when Nick Jaggar headed in from a corner.

They were 2-0 up in the 35th minute when Tom Matthews beat the home keeper with a shot after being put through by Anthony Haigh.

Arnold must have had a few words of encouragement from their management team during the break and they were a much stronger proposition after the interval, even after they had gone down to ten men late on when captain Martin Kearney was red-carded for deliberate handball.

Danny Nadiole rifled in from ten yards to cap a nice passing move by Brighouse just after the hour but Arnold hit back through Willis Francis.

There was also a victory on the road for Thackley as they won 1-0 at Maltby Main.

With experienced striker Mark Bett suspended and Dempsey Smith taken off injured at the interval, the second-half winning goal came from an unlikely source.

Centre back James Firth netted just before the hour mark with a fine volley after Matt Morgan had swung in a corner.

Firth had come close to a rare goal in the ninth minute when he was forward for an early corner, his header crashing back off the bar.

Liversedge may have been held to a home draw by promotion-chasing Tadcaster Albion but they did move up one place in the table thanks to Arnold’s defeat.

Sedge took the lead against their fifth-placed visitors just over half an hour into the game through Nathan Cartman.

Tadcaster’s Nick Thompson struck the equaliser on the stroke of half-time and the sides battled out a goalless second half.