LAST out of the visitors' changing room at Moorend, Ilkley's head of rugby Rhys Morgan cut a disconsolate figure as he packed away his gear last Saturday.

He had just watched his team fall to a 17-13 defeat against Cleckheaton in National League Three North, and said: "I know that conditions on the day favoured Cleckheaton and they got two catch-and-drive tries but we gave them field position and it was our worst performance of the season in terms of mistakes and decision-making.

"There were some marginal decisions over selection, and one or two players needed to show me that I have made the right decisions, but they have let me down.

"Taking nothing away from Cleckheaton, but we played like a Yorkshire Division One club – no, that is a slight on a Yorkshire Division One club.

"To beat Cleckheaton, we needed to keep our error count down, and if we did that and Cleckheaton made more mistakes than us, then we would beat them.

"We had to work them and we didn't work them enough. We had a game-plan and we didn't stick to it enough."

Yellow cards went to Jack Seddon, Mikey Heyward and Richard Piper from Cleckheaton, and Paul Petchey and Elliot Morgan for the visitors, but Morgan senior added: "I don't think it was the sort of game to warrant five yellow cards."

Ilkley won the reverse fixture 31-17 on October 24, which was their third successive win, but after that they lost five straight before three successive victories were followed by a draw at home to Sheffield and this defeat.

With eight matches left, the Dalesmen, who are at second-from-bottom Huddersfield YMCA on Saturday in a re-arranged match, are now only three places and nine points above Cleckheaton, who are in the highest of the three demotion berths, and Morgan warned: "We certainly need to be careful that we are not sucked into a relegation battle."