Town left ruing their misfortune (From Ilkley Gazette)

Town left ruing their misfortune

11:42am Thursday 19th April 2012 in Ilkley

Brighouse Old Boys 2 Ilkley Town 1

Ilkley were left ruing their luck as a disputed goal sentenced them to another narrow defeat against one of the top teams.

Town felt that Rob Kenny was offside when he headed the winning goal past James Hirst to secure the points for Division One promotion chasers Brighouse Old Boys.

Until Kenny netted his second goal there was little to choose between the sides and a draw would have been the fairest result.

After a splendid run of form during the middle part of the season, Ilkley Town have managed to lose to top-four teams by the odd goal in their last four encounters and that sums up their season.

Ilkley weathered an early storm with Brighouse hitting the post through Kenny before Phil Thommesen opened the scoring after 25 minutes.

Liam Blenkhorn’s flick from Danny Henderson’s corner found its way to Thommesen who thumped a volley past Jason Hibbert.

The Brighouse keeper made a fine save from Henderson’s low shot five minutes later and the Ilkley striker was harshly adjudged offside when played through by Ross Hutchison.

The Brighouse equaliser came from nowhere when Andy Bloom and Darren Munday got in a tangle and allowed a free-kick to drift into the penalty-area where Kenny lifted the ball over Hirst into the net.

It was a lifeline for Brighouse who had struggled to match the passing and movement of Ilkley with Tom Higman and James Winward prompting several pene- trating attacks by the visitors.

A reminder at half-time to maintain their high tempo passing seemed to fall on deaf ears as Ilkley allowed Brighouse to retain possession without ever creating any clear-cut chances.

Long balls forward to take advantage of a stiffening breeze seemed to be Brighouse’s main path to goal and despite some indecision, Ilkley’s defence coped with this approach until the 70th minute .

A clearance by Munday was crossed back into the Ilkley penalty-area where Kenny was all alone on the penalty-spot as he headed past Hirst with Town looking in vain for an offside decision.

Ilkley’s frustration grew as Blenkhorn and Henderson broke clear and were pulled back for tight offside decisions.

Alan Stockdale, Dave Hancock nd Bloom all went close in the closing stages but they couldn’t force an equaliser as Brighouse clung on to the three points.

On Saturday, Town face their last game of the season away at Kellingley MW (2.30pm).