THIRD-placed Ilkley Town won a scrappy derby against ten-man Pool to make it back-to-back Premier Division victories in the West Yorkshire League.

Heavy snow and rain over the past few days meant only three other matches survived in the league, so Ilkley deserve credit for being one of the few who beat the weather.

Yet a heavy pitch meant the game suffered in quality, although Ilkley felt it was right to play it on grass rather than an artificial surface.

Pool player Nick Hewitt saw red in the 20th minute after leaving his studs on James Hirst as he tried to block the Ilkley keeper's clearance.

The visitors almost went a goal down in the first half, with Joe Garner-Currie making a superb tackle to spare keeper Andy Doey's blushes following an uncharacteristic miskicked clearance.

But generally Town were unable to take the game to their opponents, despite the man advantage, and almost fell behind 59 minutes in when Hirst needed to be alert to tip a ferocious effort over the bar.

Ilkley should have taken the lead minutes later as Toby Harris and Darren Munday launched a counter-attack, leaving Pool completely exposed. Striker Harris played centre back Munday in but he fired well over.

Town manager Simon Armstrong looked to shake the game up by introducing Robin Layton and Tom Archer off the bench.

It only took a minute for the reward to come, with Layton cutting into the box and curling the ball into the bottom corner, giving Doey no chance.

The celebrations from the Ilkley bench showed how much that goal meant to them against their bottom-of-the-table visitors.

Lee Spires' neat lob then wrapped up the 2-0 victory, although Pool could not understand why the initial free-kick had been awarded.

Armstrong said: "We brought Robin (Layton) and Tom (Archer) on and changed formation just to do something different.

"Pool were down to ten men – they had gone to a 4-4-1 and weren't that adventurous. They wanted a point, so we had to shake things up and thankfully it paid off."

The match was never likely to be easy on the eye, with the surface cutting up, but Armstrong believed it was no excuse for his side's scrappy play.

He said: "We didn't play very well with the ball or move it around quickly enough. Because the game had a slow tempo, it suited Pool's defensive play.

"That being said, it was a derby and Pool always raise their game in this fixture. They were desperate for points but we did enough in the end to secure all three."