PICKERING Town’s six-match unbeaten streak came to an end as they fell to a 3-0 defeat at Hallam in the NCEL premier division.

Second-half goals from Iren Wilson, Brandon Bradbury and Scott Ruthven proved enough to sink Tony Hackworth’s side in front of a 500-strong crowd in South Yorkshire.

The Pikes were not helped by their ill-discipline again rearing its ugly head, finding themselves down to nine players after Blake Drury was dismissed and Matty Robinson controversially sent to the sin-bin for seemingly only asking why.

It took a spirited first-half performance from the visitors to keep the scoreline goalless at the interval, having been faced with the challenge of playing uphill.

Wilson fashioned the first chance of the match after a quarter of an hour, but saw his shot blocked by the Pickering defence.

The Pikes responded well, with only an outstanding block denying Danny Chapman seven minutes later after Omar Sanyang had carved out an opening.

Nico Degirolamo’s strike rolled narrowly wide before Pickering had to be alert to halt Daniel Pudill, but neither side were able to find the breakthrough before the interval.

Hackworth’s side saw the best chance of the game come their way five minutes after the restart, but Sanyang could not keep his overhead kick the right side of the crossbar from close range.

And they were made to rue that miss, Wilson opening the scoring after a bursting run down the left wing resulted in him firing into the roof of the net.

Things soon went from bad to worse for the Pikes when Drury was given his marching orders and Robinson sent to the sin-bin.

Inevitably, it didn’t take long for Hallam to capitalise on their numerical advantage, Bradbury heading home Ollie Fearon’s teasing cross to double their lead 20 minutes from time.

The hosts wrapped up the scoring late on, Ruthven reacting quickest to poke home the loose ball after Harrison McGuire’s parry.

Pickering will hope to bounce back when they travel to Rossington Main on Saturday (3pm).