Ilkley Town 3 Horbury Town 0

TWO Lee Spires penalties and a goalkeeping calamity helped Ilkley to their third-successive league win, moving into second place in the Premier Division and keeping the pressure on leaders Beeston.

After a quiet start to the game, with both sides struggling for rhythm, Ilkley were presented with a golden opportunity to take the lead, when Spires was hacked down just inside the box.

The forward elected to take the penalty himself, stepped up and blasted the ball into the centre of the goal.

Just nine minutes later, the referee pointed to the spot again, after Horbury's Richard Mack palmed the ball away from a cross. Spires stepped up again and the same result followed, this time picking out the bottom right corner.

Horbury grew into the game momentarily after the break and saw their first major chance on the 50th minute, hitting Town on the counter.

With a clear sight of goal, Tom Dews fired the ball at keeper Alex Wormall, who got down well to keep his team's clean sheet intact.

Ilkley should have made it three on the 61st minute, when Dec Bradley charged into the box from the left wing and cut the ball back to Toby Harris, who's weak shot was easily saved.

Soon the game began to unravel for Horbury. First Eoin Schofield saw red after a heated exchange with the referee before from the resulting free kick, keeper Jordan Ripley dropped a harmless cross into his own goal.

From there the hosts would take their foot off the gas and secure the 3-0 win, showing good composure and shape.

Despite the scoreline, manager Simon Armstrong was not too impressed with the performance overall. He said: "The two penalties really knocked the stuffing out of them.

"From there I really wanted to control the game, especially after the sending off but we were still nervous and unsure, whereas I wanted them to do the work and we didn't do that. So, I am a little disappointed with the performance, we need to improve."

Next up for Town is a tough trip to last season's league winners Carlton Athletic, who have endured a mixed start to the new campaign. Armstrong however, believes it will still be a difficult game. He said: "It's really hard to judge teams early in the season. They have probably suffered with players coming in and out of the team so even though they've had a mixed start, it's never an easy game against Carlton,

"We've had a good start, so they are going to want to prove a point against us."