Kellingley MW 3 Ilkley Town 3

West Yorkshire League Division One promotion chasers Ilkley travelled to Kellingley knowing their opponents had only registered one point from their previous 19 games.

It looked an away banker but battling Kellingley twice came from behind to pick up a rare point on a frustrating afternoon for the visitors.

The game had no real rhythm from the start. Ilkley looked sluggish whereas Kellingley had more purpose and energy.

After 24 uninspiring minutes Ross Hutchison hit a wonderful curling lob over the Kellingley keeper to give Town the lead.

Within five minutes the advantage was doubled as good interplay on the right saw the ball played to Danny Henderson, who rifled his shot beyond the keeper.

Kellingley looked a beaten side and it seemed that it would turn out to be a comfortable afternoon for Town, unfor tunately it wasn’t to be.

Within two minutes of the restart, sloppy midfield play saw Kellingley win possession of the ball and the centre midfielder played a pass between James Wilson and Darren Munday with the home striker slotting the ball past the onrushing James Hirst.

The second half saw little improve ment from Ilkley who continued to play poorly, but the result was still in their favour.

Unfortunately it didn’t stay that way for long. Ilkley won a throw in, deep in their own half and opted to throw back to keeper James Hirst, who rather than put his left foot through it, opened his body, miscontrolled the ball and presented the Kellingley striker with a simple goal.

With the game now starting to slip away, Ben Greenhow and Danny Bryan were introduced to freshen things up.

In the 65th minute a superb crossfield pass from Sam Dexter picked out Ben Greenhow, who drew two players, before laying the ball back for Ben Dexter to produce a fantastic cross to the back post where Hutchison was on hand to head the ball into the roof of the net.

Unfortunately this was another lead Ilkley would fail to hold onto.

With ten minutes to go, Kellingley were awarded their second free kick just outside the box in minutes.

For the second time a free kick was arrowed towards goal. This time it came off the bar and bounced into the net.

There were no further chances of note. Ilkley will feel disappointed. After winning five games in a row, they will view this as a missed opportunity.