ILKLEY progressed in the West Riding Challenge Cup with a 5-2 victory over West Yorkshire Premier side Hunslet at Ben Rhydding Sports Club.

After surviving several early scares, the hosts began to take control of the tie and the boot of Hunslet keeper Chris Berrow was all that denied Tom Smith from putting Ilkley ahead.

The breakthrough arrived minutes later however, as fantastic pressing saw Tom Fleming win the ball deep in the Hunslet half before he laid it off to Dave Hancock who picked out Matty Whitehead to fire into the bottom corner.

Smith would go close again soon after as his effort was diverted onto the post by a faint Berrow glove before the forward finally got his reward, latching on to Whitehead's through ball and lobbing Berrow to make it 2-0 at half-time.

With 60 minutes played Hunslet halved the deficit with route-one football as Lee Turner controlled a looping pass perfectly before firing past Jake Baguley.

Ilkley's response was swift as they made it 3-1 through a neat one-two with Smith setting Whitehead free in the area to net his second of the game.

Hunslet's answer would be even more rapid as Turner unleashed a 25-yard strike into the top corner from the re-start. Eighteen-year-old Baguley in the Ilkley goal did fantastic to get a hand to it, but the ball nonetheless found its way into the net.

Despite that goal the visitors were unable to pressure Ilkley in search of an equaliser, and instead gifted Town their next goal as Toby Harris walked into the box and picked out the corner.

Town wrapped it up nine minutes from time as Whitehead from the goal-line picked out substitute Harry Brown, who claimed his first goal in Ilkley colours.

Ilkley manager Simon Armstrong saw many positives in the performance. He said: "I think we played well in the first 45, especially defensively. We restricted them and came in 2-0 up, but that's always a dangerous scoreline.

"In the second half we dropped a little too deep and gave them a bit too much space between our defence and midfield, and credit to them they punished us with a couple of very good finishes. But our lads were excellent going forward at times. We just need to be more consistent in our performance and the tempo, but I think we were worthy 5-2 winners."

Recent weeks have seen the emergence of several talented players joining the club and graduating from the academy, something which Armstrong admits is giving him lots of tough decisions when naming the team on a Saturday.

"It's difficult picking the team right now because the squad has so much quality, but that's a good thing to have as it creates competition for places" he said.