Old Headlingley 7 Ilkley Town 1

A disastrous ten minute period at the end of the first-half meant that Ilkley Town were on a damage limitation exercise in the second-half as Old Headingley romped home.

The score was 0-0 after 30 minutes, with both teams cancelling each other out and neither side maintaining possession, then sloppy defending allowed Tyers to score from a narrow angle and the floodgates opened.

Ilkley suffered their biggest defeat for several seasons. The opening exchanges showed that both teams wanted to pass the ball on a flat but slippery surface and with patches of each penalty area hard and crispy with frost.

It was ten minutes before either side created a shooting opportunity as defences dominated, though Mark Houlston cleared off the line after a Headingley corner was swept goal-wards by Rosendale, and Nick Smith completed the clearance. At the other end, Miles Ratcliffe and Danny Henderson were enjoying plenty of attacking space on the left and two dangerous crosses by Ratcliffe caused problems for the home side, before Chris Mynett played the ball into the stride of Houlston whose shot was parried by Fearns.

On the half hour, a misunderstanding between Tom Rennolds and Matt Trimnell allowed Tyers to sneak behind the Ilkley full-back and as Trimnell tried to recover the Headingley player ran along the by-line before scooping the ball over James Hirst from an acute angle. It hit the far-post before rebounding into the net.

Then came ten minutes of madness for Ilkley as two short corners resulted in further goals with the visitors slow to react on both occasions as Headingley players were allowed time and space in the penalty area.

At 3-0 the game was effectively over and the referee’s failure to spot an off-side that resulted in Dyson scoring the Headingley fourth was of little consequence.

Without playing poorly or lacking effort or energy, Ilkley were as dumbfounded by the scoreline at half-time, as Headingley were amazed.

However, the second-half was to prove a big challenge for a relatively inexperienced Ilkley team for whom it presented an opportunity to work on individual and collective performances.

The response of the Ilkley players was very positive and a change of formation moved Trimnell into midfield to combat Headingley’s influential playmaker Shields.

After 65 minutes, the non-stop Rennolds whipped in a free-kick that Houlston volleyed past Fearns, only for the momentum gained from this response to be dissipated by failure to deal with a similar free-kick from Dyson that travelled through a packed penalty area before reaching Kempton at the far post. He had a simple tap-in to make the score 5-1. Alan Stockdale and Allen Hey replaced the injured Houlston and Henderson, and Ilkley pressed Headingley back onto the defensive and should have scored two goals in quick succession.

A corner by Rennolds was headed goalwards by Nick Smith and a melee ensued with the ball rebounding down off the bar only for Stockdale to head it into the arms of Fearns on the goalline.

The same Ilkley player then latched on to a pass by James Wilson and powered past Keating before blasting a shot from 12 yards that hit the bar when a more composed finis would have beaten the static Fearns.

Having missed these chances to get back into the game and with little else to lose, Ilkley’s commitment to attacking left gaps in defence and Williams capitalised on Daz Munday’s surge forwards by racing into space he’d left behind and drilling the ball past Hirst. Then a misunderstanding between Hirst and Smith gifted a chance to Dyson to lob the ball into the empty net and rub salt into the already gaping wounds.

Headingley scored seven goals from nine chances, and Ilkley one goal from six chances and on another day the score would have been 5-3 but this was Headingley’s day as almost every shot or rebound or prod fell into their path.

Football at any level throws out strange results, as the FA Cup revealed last weekend. It is a credit to the Ilkley players that a sensible post-game discussion resulted in a request for extra coaching sessions to take place and a commitment to develop fitness levels as conceding goals at the end of each half suggest tiredness setting in alongside some sloppy defending and lack of mobility in the front-line.

On Saturday, Ilkley have the chance to put this game behind them with the first of three consecutive home games at Ben Rhydding with Kippax Athletic the visitors (kick-off 2pm, players meet at the ground at noon.