Two former high profile former full time professionals put the skids under a lacklustre Brighouse Town side at Grantham last Saturday.

Nathan Tyson, 40, with 17 clubs to his name and 184 appearances for Nottingham Forest and 71 for Doncaster Rovers, bagged a brace and could have had a hat-trick if Brett Souter hadn’t saved a second half penalty. His co-striker Chris O’Grady, 35, who got the third goal in a 3-0 win, was playing for his 19th club after moving to the Gingerbreadmen the week before from Ilkeston Town. He had played for the likes of Forest, Leicester City, Sheffield Wednesday and Bradford City along the way.

In the opening stages of the game the hosts looked edgy and Town should have capitalised through Sam Reed and Josh Dacre but they didn’t and were left to rue the day on 19 minutes as Grantham took the lead through Tyson. His side had been awarded a free kick just outside the box on the right and Damien McCrory’s weak effort was flicked in by Tyson to just evade Souter.

Souter then pulled off a good save from an O’Grady header and Mohammed Ibrahim scissor kicked off the line to ensure Town went in at the break just a goal down.

There had been very little constructive play from Town and their forward line was non-productive and midfield rather erratic.

Grantham added to their scoreline just four minutes into the second half when Tyson took the ball into the box and then turned sharply to send the ball beyond the reach of Souter.

On 60 minutes the Gingerbreadmen were awarded a controversial penalty as the home forward Declan Dunn was heading away from goal when he went to ground. However, the left-footed Tyson’s effort was well saved by Souter.

Substitute Bradford City loanee Cole Roberts had the best chance of the second half to pull one back for Town but a well taken shot on goal was deflected when looking to beat the home keeper Dan Haystead.

The home side, battling to get away from the relegation zone, made it 3-0 on 82 minutes when O’Grady scored his first goal for the club after being put clear by Tyson.

This was by a country mile Town’s poorest performance of the season and the management and supporters will be looking for a much improved showing on Saturday when thirteenth-placed Bridlington Town are the visitors (3pm).

Town, who lost 1-0 at Bridlington back on October 8 in controversial circumstances and played for most of the game with 10 men, play the first of three successive home games and need to up their game and bag some very vital points to climb up the table from their position one place ahead of Bridlington.

Once more there will be no place in the side for goalscoring machine Laurence Sorhaindo. Manager Vill Powell answered: “how long is a piece of string,” when questioned upon the possibly return of Sorhaindo who has been out of action since January 17 when Town played Campion in the third round of the West Riding County Cup.

It is understood the Cullingworth-based player still isn’t able to training.

Skipper Tom Haigh came back from an ankle injury in the second half at Grantham but it was mentioned that hard tackling defender Matty Nebard was injured and he may not make this Saturday’s line up. Doncaster-based striker Myron Gibbons is also on his fourth week out of action with a troublesome knee injury.

Saturday’s match is being sponsored by Rastrick Dental Surgery and their proprietor Chris Anderson. Chris, trading as Chris Anderson Dental Surgery Ltd, is also dental surgeon for Bradford City and Bradford Bulls, who he has been associated with for many seasons.

Town’s teenage left back Sam Reed played his second trial game on Monday for Sheffield Wednesday’s U-23 side in a 1-0 defeat by Sheffield United. From an early stage of the game he and his defensive colleagues were under the cosh as Wednesday had been reduced to 10 men following a sending off.

The `Sheffield Star’ reporter gave Reed, 19, a 7-10 marking and said he did the simple things well and showed sound positional sense.