Town boosted by midweek victory (From Ilkley Gazette)

Town boosted by midweek victory

10:00pm Wednesday 29th August 2012 in Sport

Baildon Trinity 0 Ilkley Town 2

Ross Hutchison scored twice to earn Ilkley Town a deserved West Yorkshire League Division One away victory.

Town competed well against their robust opponents and managed to play some neat football on a well-grassed yet bumpy surface.

With the advantage of a slight breeze, Ilkley pressed the home side onto the defensive for much of the first-half as Danny Henderson and Phil Thommesen’s pace created problems.

The opening goal came after 25 minutes.

Hutchison collected the ball inside the penalty-area after Baildon failed to clear Damian Smith’s corner and last season’s top-scorer drilled a low shot through a crowd of players into the far corner of the net.

A slick move ten minutes later sent full-back Ben Dexter through on goal but he pulled his shot wide with only the goalkeeper to beat.

The second-half saw Baildon knock long balls forwards at every opportunity but Darren Munday and Andy Bloom dealt competently with this approach and James Hirst handled well in the Ilkley goal when required.

Dexter saw a pile-driver tipped over the bar before Tom Rennolds screwed his shot across goal when played through by James Winward.

The second Ilkley goal arrived after 75 minutes.

Smith eluded his marker and clipped the ball into the penalty-area where Hutchison timed his run perfectly to head firmly past the Baildon ‘keeper.

This was a pleasing result for Ilkley Town especially as they achieved their objectives of passing the ball along the ground and defending with commitment.

Midweek early-season games are always difficult to assess as sides often have players unavailable for selection however, this was a good team performance by Ilkley Town.

The welcome addition of a couple of new players has created pressure for starting places