Altofts 2, Ilkley Town 3

Ilkley travelled to Altofts hoping to make it two wins in a row in West Yorkshire League Division One, and were greeted by a good playing surface on a sunny afternoon.

The visitors started at a good pace and looked to get full backs James Hanna and Dave Hancock involved as much as possible.

Altofts, on the other hand, played a more direct style and proved a real threat from set-pieces, with Ilkley struggling to cope on more than one occasion.

On 20 minutes, Ilkley finally turned their superior posession into a goal. Quick, neat interplay between Damien Smith, Adam Turner and Sam Dexter led to Joe Hendrie crossing.

It was cleared but straight back to him, and a pin-point second cross found Damien Smith, who was unmarked and made no mistake from eight yards.

A quarter of an hour later, it was 2-0 as Ben Dexter received the ball in the back four and played a long, diagonal pass to Smith, who adjusted, controlled and played a pass in behind the opposing full back for the run of Ross Hutchinson, who used the bounce of the ball to lob the Altofts goalkeeper for an outstanding finish.

The second half was similar to the first, with Ilkley seemingly in control, until the 65th minute when a ball was harmlessly running out of play.

Hanna was following the winger, just to be sure, when the Altofts player fell to the floor and a penalty awarded.

To say it was soft, is an understatement but the penalty was dispatched and Altofts were back in the game.

Within five minutes, however, the two-goal lead was restored as Turner scored his 11th goal in eight games with a low, scuffed shot into the bottom corner after good work from Hendrie and Smith.

Ilkley took this opportunity to introduce Danny Bryan and Chris Alderson for the final 20 minutes. Unfortunately, Alderson only lasted five minutes as, after an altercation with the Altofts captain, he was shown red for head-butting!

Down to ten men with 15 min-utes to play but two goals to the good, Ilkley were in control until two minutes later when an Altofts free-kick was floated into the area where James Winward and his opposite number seemed to wrest-le eachother to the ground.

The referee amazingly awarded another penalty, which was dispatched to make it 3-2 but Ilkley held out without further alarm.

Old Centralians visit on Saturday.