TONY Hackworth was left “absolutely delighted” as Pickering Town broke their seven-match winless streak with a 3-1 victory at home to Frickley Athletic on Saturday.

Souleymane Coulibaly, Joe Wood and George Brown were on target for the Pikes as they did the double over Frickley, whom they also beat 4-2 on the opening day of the NCEL Premier Division season back in July.

Having pushed title challengers Golcar and Silsden hard in the week leading up to the fixture, Hackworth believes that the three points were a just reward for his side’s efforts.

“We’ve been playing really well, and we’re really pleased with how the group’s been performing in games,” he told club media.

“We’ve just gone against two hard teams in Golcar and Silsden, and we’ve bossed it to be fair in terms of our possession and how we’ve moved the ball but got nothing out of it at the end of the day. I’ve harped on about it before, but it’s all about getting three points on the board.

“But we’ve had players back from suspension and stuff, we knew we had a stronger squad. We had Sully, who got his international clearance done and is a massive boost for us, and he gets the first goal.

“Overall, we’re just absolutely delighted, of course we are.”

Hackworth made three changes from Pickering’s midweek defeat at Silsden, reinstating captain Wayne Brooksby, Connor Avison and Coulibaly back into the starting line-up.

It was Frickley who started the better of the sides, a ball over the top freeing Marcel Chipamaunga with just 12 seconds played, but he could not keep his effort under the bar.

However, the Pikes soon found themselves on top, with Alex Zachariou clipping the crossbar with a sweetly struck long-range effort just after the quarter-hour.

Alfie Burnett somehow managed to stop a Charlie Clegg effort from crossing the line, but the hosts soon stepped up a gear, Coulibaly volleying home Ethan Kachosa’s pinpoint cross to break the deadlock with 25 minutes on the clock.

Frickley though weren’t behind for long, former Pickering striker Rob Guilfoyle catching out Burnett with a speculative 30-yard effort to level the scores.

The visitors finished the half on top, with Chipamaunga seeing a shot blocked before firing narrowly wide under pressure, the sides remaining locked at the interval.

The second half proved to be similarly end-to-end, Clegg firing straight at Burnett before Wood failed to hit the target with a free header from six yards.

Wood though soon atoned for his miss, albeit from a perhaps controversial free-kick that earned the Frickley assistant a booking for his protests. There was nothing to be contested about the finish however, a stunning first-time hit from the edge of the box flying into the top corner.

The visitors tried to pick themselves up but saw appeals for a penalty waved away when Clegg went down inside the box with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Instead, Pickering wrapped up the points late on, a poor clearance falling to Brooksby, who squared the ball for Brown to finish from close range.

The Pikes’ attentions now turn to the North Riding County Cup, in which they will travel to Guisborough Town for their second-round tie on Wednesday evening (7:45pm).