Ref justice for Ilkley Town as they stumble to disappointing defeat

ILKLEY Town's West Yorkshire League Premier Division title aspirations took a major blow after two disallowed goals condemned them to defeat.

The first chance fell to Ilkley, after a terrible back-pass put Toby Harris one-on-one with Chris Berrow, but the Hunslet keeper saved his side.

As Hunslet grew into the game, Ilkley found themselves hanging on for dear life.

Goalkeeper James Hirst failed to deal with a low cross and was relieved to see Gareth Groves scoop his shot over the bar.

One minute later, Omri Linfoot used his pace to charge past Harry Higgins on the left wing, before poking the ball into the box. Much to his frustration, no Hunslet players were there to capitalise.

Hunslet's pressure paid off when Danny Bott brought down Linfoot just inside the box to concede a penalty.

Groves stepped up, and despite a strong hand from Hirst, found the bottom right corner.

Tempers began to flair, as both Harris and Tim Edney lashed out after alleged abuse, forcing the officials to have words with both sides.

Just to add to the tension, Ilkley had a goal ruled out for offside, when Edney nodded in Lee Spires' free-kick at the second attempt.

Minutes later, Town had another goal ruled out, when Spires' through ball found Harris, who curled his shot into the bottom corner.

The linesman appeared to raise his flag after the ball hit the net. Ilkley were furious and claimed he had been influenced by the Hunslet protests.

With seconds to go until half-time, Hunslet netted their second goal when Samuel Kyermeh took advantage of a slip from Darren Munday. Hirst got a boot to the strike, but couldn't stop the ball trickling into the net.

Ilkley felt hard done-by early in the second half when Berrow handled outside the penalty area to prevent Matty Whitehead from getting in a shot.

The keeper was shown a yellow card as was Whitehead for his protests.

Ilkley's heads dropped but they did find a constellation goal in the final minute, when Spires' free-kick was turned in by Robin Layton from close range.