Robin Hood take points from Town

Ilkley travelled to West Yorkshire League Division One table-toppers Robin Hood in search of their first win in four games.

Unfortunately, Robin Hood demonstrated what it takes to win difficult games and secured the three points on offer.

Ilkley once again made things difficult for themselves, as within two minutes they were behind.

A misplaced back-pass fell into the path of a Robin Hood striker and left him one-on-one with goalkeeper James Hirst.

He made no mistake as he gave Robin Hood an early lead.

In the first half, the hosts dominated as they pressed high up the pitch, which forced Ilkley into misplaced passes and other errors.

Through this aggressive but very effective approach, Robin Hood created more clear-cut opp-ortunities, and eventually took a deserved 2-0 lead after poor defend-ing meant that Hirst was beaten in the left corner of his net. At this point, it looked like being a dam-age-limitation exercise for Ilkley.

Character was the order of the day, and in the second half Ilkley came out and demonstrated they can not only compete with the best teams in the league, but also outplay them.

The second-half performance was energised by a 30-yard Danny Bryan stunner in the 50th minute after nice interplay with Danny Bott, which reduced the deficit to 2-1. From this point on, and for the next 30 minutes, there was only one team in it.

Ilkley pressed the opposition, won the ball frequently and start-ed to create excellent goal-scoring opportunities.

The first of these fell to Ross Hutchison, whose fine run into the box was picked out by a superb curling cross from Bott.

Unfortunately, Hutchison was stretching slightly when he con-nected and put the ball inches wide.

A Bott corner was then missed by the Robin Hood keeper but the centre half did just enough to put off Andy Bloom from having the simplest of tasks.

Some excellent quick play in the penalty area saw the ball fall again to Hutchison, whose fine strike was well saved by the Robin Hood goalkeeper. It proved to be an important stop.

Despite this dominance, Ilkley had not punished Robin Hood and with two minutes remaining they were made to pay for their missed opportunities.

Robin Hood delivered a sucker punch with their first effort on goal in the second half.

An inswinging corner was deli-vered and a weak header somehow found the net to make it 3-1 and effectively finish the game. It was the end to any hopes of Ilkley securing a point.

However, their excellent second half-performance was full of character and served to demon-strate the need to play with a little more self belief, determination and consistency.