Featherstone 2 Ilkley Town 2

llkley Town missed a chance to go top of Division One when they were held to a draw at Featherstone.

They started the game with both energy and intensity as they put the home side under pressure.

Unfortunately Ilkley’s play on the ball lacked the fluency of recent weeks resulting in a number of misplaced passes on the tricky surface.

The game wasn’t pleasing on the eye, but Ilkley were playing better football and Damien Smith went close when he hit a post from an acute angle.

As the half came to a close, good work down the right saw the ball cut back to Danny Bott, who fired home.

It would have been ideal if Ilkley could have held on until half-time but a scramble in the box saw the Feather- stone striker poke the ball home.

The second half was a similar affair with chances at a minimum.

Ilkley managed to get themselves in front again, on the hour mark, when Adam Turner got in front of his marker from a corner kick and guided the ball into the net.

Town needed to play a more compact game and limit space, unfortunately play became more stretched which allowed Featherstone to break quickly and cause problems.

In the 67th minute the Featherstone winger found space and delivered a cross which his unmarked striker headed goalwards with the ball seemingly going through the hands of James Hirst.

At this point the game could have swung either way, and nearly did in Featherstone’s favour as somehow man of the match Danny Bryan cleared off the line when it seemed a certain goal.

On the whole Ilkley may look back and see this a good point gained at a difficult venue.

However with high-flying Old Modernians visiting Ben Rhydding on Saturday they will need to put in an improved performance if they are to get a positive result.