Ronnie Kelly had a goal chalked off as Pickering dominated the opening half-hour, but they were ultimately made to pay for not taking their chances.

They never recovered from conceding two quick-fire goals before half time and saw both Omar Sanyang’s penalty saved and Souleymane Coulibaly spend time in the sin bin as the hosts wrapped up a comfortable victory after the break,

Speaking to club media, assistant manager Joe Connor fumed: “4-0, it doesn’t look great. I don’t think it’s a 4-0 game, and their manager has just said the same. But that’s what the scoreline will show.

“The first 30 minutes we were by far and away the better team, we’ve had a goal disallowed, we’ve had two, maybe three, great opportunities and we’ve not been ruthless.

“Then there’s an incident that happened in the middle of the pitch and the lads have just lost all concentration and just completely dropped all their standards and levels for the last 15 minutes of the first half and we’ve gone in 2-0 down.

Omar Sanyang’s second-half penalty was saved well by Jordan Porter. (Image: Ellen Thornton) “The second half, there wasn’t a lot in it, we missed a penalty, and we’ve had more great opportunities, and they’ve scored another couple of goals.

“Being ruthless at both ends of the pitch, that’s what we’ve been struggling with and it’s a similar story to Wednesday night [at Eccleshill] to me.

“When it gets tough, there’s certain individuals in our dressing room that, I don’t know if they don’t fancy it or whether they’re just weak mentally, but that ability to roll your sleeves up and grind out results and change the course of the game by your own actions and bringing people along with you, there’s a few in there that are not doing that.”

Tony Hackworth was without Matthew Bowman and skipper Wayne Brooksby due to injury, but did welcome back former York City defender George Harrison. Kelly was back in the starting line-up whilst Under 18s prospect Charley Tompkins was named on the bench.

The hosts looked for a fast start at the Horsfall Community Stadium, with Ellis Wade heading the opening effort off target in the third minute.

But Pickering soon found their feet, with Joe Wood beating the offside trap, and then rounding goalkeeper Jordan Porter, but somehow rolling the ball narrowly wide.

Joe Wood shot narrowly wide before Ronnie Kelly saw an effort chalked off for offside. (Image: Ellen Thornton) Kelly looked to have put the Pikes ahead in the 21st minute but was perhaps unlucky to see his effort chalked off for offside.

A tackle on Ben Silburn though proved to be the turning point, and with many believing Wade should have been sent off for an incident in the aftermath, Connor Avison was shown a yellow card as he attempted to be a peacemaker in the melee that followed.

Albion missed a golden chance to put themselves in front soon after but did open the scoring from their next attempt on 37 minutes after a mix up at the back allowed Fernando Moke Tumba to slot the ball home.

Their second followed three minutes later after Ethan Kachosa fouled his man inside the box, and though Alfie Burnett saved from the spot, Nathan Cartman fired in the rebound.

Alfie Burnett saved a penalty, but couldn’t keep out the follow-up. (Image: Ellen Thornton) Introducing Tompkins and Coulibaly at half time gave Pickering a new lease of life, with only a fantastic diving save keeping Sanyang from halving the deficit early on.

Pickering then won a penalty just before the hour, but Porter saved Sanyang’s spot-kick comfortably before the striker was again thwarted by the impressive shot-stopper.

However, Coulibaly’s sin bin opened the door for new signing Louis Alfonso Ferreira to score his first Albion goal before Ryan Conlon wrapped up the victory with just under 20 minutes remaining.

Back-to-back defeats in West Yorkshire have left the Pikes eighth, 10 points adrift of the final play-off spot. They will hope to bounce back when they host Handsworth tomorrow night (7:45pm).