Altofts 1 Ilkley Town 2

ILKLEY Town had six players under the age of 22 in their starting line-up and they acquitted themselves well as their side gained a West Yorkshire League Division One win.

Altofts started with real purpose and energy, pressurising their opponents at every opportunity. The visitors survived the early onslaught and settled down to play with more purpose and quality.

This brought its rewards in the 15th minute when Ilkley built an attack down the right. When the ball was played into the penalty area, Connor Greenwood laid the ball back for Tom Rennolds, who scored with a first-time shot with the outside of his right foot.

This goal gave Ilkley confidence and they started to find more space and opportunities to play.

They increased their lead four minutes later when some neat football in the middle of the park saw Danny Bott play a through ball for Greenwood.

The striker got to the ball before the onrushing goalkeeper, and was clipped. Rennolds took responsibility with the penalty and slotted it into the net.

Altofts were still well in the game and only a lack of quality in the final third cost them as Ilkley defended nervously. The defence made incorrect decisions which put them under further unnecessary pressure.

Fortunately they made it to half-time without conceding a goal. They could have been three or even four goals to the good as first Greenwood and then Adam Davey missed good opportunities.

The first 20 minutes of the second half were completely controlled by Ilkley, who passed the ball simply and had a nice shape to their play.

Altofts simply couldn’t get the ball and it looked like Ilkley would go on to win comfortably.

Ilkley’s failure to turn dominance into goals meant Altofts were still in contention and they stunned the visitors when their centre forward stepped inside Andy Bloom and hit a dipping shot into the top corner.

The momentum shifted as Ilkley had begun to find the game a little too easy. Altofts now had belief that they could get something out of the game.

Both teams had opportunities to score as play became stretched.

Ilkley should have added to their tally as first Adam Fowler and then Davey saw the Altofts goalkeeper pull off impressive reaction saves.

At the other end Altofts delivered some dangerous crosses, but no one was ever in the right place to get the all important touch.