Scarborough Athletic battle back to smash eight past Pickering Town in pre-season clash

Boro won their pre-season friendly at Pickering Town

After falling behind early on, Boro edged themselves back into the contest in the first half before going through the gears after the break to run out comfortable winners.

It was actually Pickering who came out the blocks quickly and soon found themselves two goals ahead.

The opener came from Dan Davison netting a cool finish after excellent work by former Boro man Jackson Jowett in the build up.

With the home side looking lively on the counter-attack, it quickly went from bad to worse as Chris Pearson beat the dive of Boro keeper Tommy Taylor to steer in a second.

At that point it was looking like it could be a tough evening for John Deacey’s side, although Harry Coates showed his aerial strength to rise highest from a corner, but could only head straight at Callum Myers in the Pickering net.

The tide began to turn though as Flynn McNaughton continued his encouraging form in pre-season by cracking in a low drive to reduce the arrears.

As the half time whistle approached, McNaughton netted his second of the game just before the interval with a crashing effort in the six yard box.

Tommy Taylor had to be alert at the start of the second half to dive to his left and deny Matt Savage with a curling free-kick.

Despite plenty of changes at the break, Boro came out with a renewed purpose to add to their goal tally and quickly hit the target.

James Walshaw was sent clear by Chris Dawson to shrug off the attentions of Myers to stroke in and take the lead for the first time.

This was quickly added to by Isaac Assenso with a towering header from a Jordan Deacey corner to make it 4-2.

Will Annan scored the goal of the game with a stunning free-kick from 25 yards that struck the underside of the bar on its way in, before Walshaw waltzed through the home defence to power in a sixth.

As the Pickering defence began to tire, Annan advanced from deep to lay off for Wayne Brooksby to side-foot in a composed finish to make it 7-2.

In the final stages T’Nique Fishley scampered through onto a Chris Dawson to add an eighth goal of the night.

It was another encouraging workout for Boro as they flexed their attacking muscles ahead of the new season.