Robin Hood 1 Ilkley Town 0

ILKLEY Town felt they had been ambushed by Robin Hood as they suffered their third-successive 1-0 defeat in the West Yorkshire League Premier Division.

Town started brightly for Ilkley Town and used the possession they were winning to cause problems from wide areas through James Turland and Ben Dexter.

The home side reacted with some good counter attacking play down their left hand side which ultimately led to a debatable penalty.

The ball stuck Dexter's hand from point blank range but the referee deemed it deliberate and harshly gave the spot kick.

Town keeper James Hirst produced a splendid penalty save to keep the score at 0-0.

The second half started the same as the first until Robin Hood forced a corner. The delivery was decent and a good header from inside the six yard box, resulted with the home side taking the lead.

The response from Town was positive and they felt they had a good penalty shout rejected.

Ilkley went close to replying late on with a tremendous effort from Joe Hendrie who had a bicycle kick tipped over the bar by the home side's goalkeeper.

Manager Simon Armstrong was philosophical about his team's current plight. He said: "It's fine margins at the moment, things just aren't going our way, but that will change.

"The lads need to keep working hard and continue to show the tremendous commitment to what we are trying to achieve.

" We knew it wouldn't be an easy challenge for us, stepping into the league above but we are competing well and the lads should take confidence from that despite the results."

Ilkley Town play Shelley on Saturday at Ben Rhydding Sports Club (2.30pm).