Ilkley Town 2 Mount St Mary’s 1

Persistence paid off for Ilkley as Damian Smith scored a last-gasp equaliser to salvage a point.

On an unusually calm day at their Ben Rhydding home, Ilkley eventually broke down a stubborn Mount St Mary’s defence just when it looked as if their efforts were going to go unrewarded.

Ilkley had started slowly with a number of misplaced passes leading to a disjointed opening to the game.

Even without being able to play their usual fluent football, Ilkley were rarely troubled by their opponents who relied on size rather than skill to try to break them down.

As Ilkley’s players became frustrated they fell behind when a smart pass from the right wing split their defence leaving the Connor Higgins to run through on James Hirst in the Ilkley goal. The chance was calmly dispatched.

Ilkley’s defence looked unlikely to be broken again after that with Ben Dexter reading the game intelligently and breaking up the St Mary’s attacks.

Liam Blenkorn and Phil Thommassen were starting to see lots of the ball on the right of Ilkley’s attack and it was from here that Town seemed most likely to break through.

Danny Henderson was threatening to get behind the St Mary’s rearguard but from a number of promising positions Ilkley were unable to find a final ball to create a goal.

It was the same pattern for much of the second half with St Mary’s content to protect their lead and increasingly retreat with ten players behind the ball. Matt Trimmell and Ross Hutchison began to dominate the midfield but Ilkley found it hard to create chances against a team that was looking to hang on to their advantage.

The introduction of James Wilson and Adam Davey provided fresh impetus for Ilkley as they pressed hard for an equaliser.

As often happens when a team defends St Mary’s pulled the Ilkley team onto them and found this created space when they did break forward.

From one of their rare attacks Hirst was forced to produce a smart save high to his right capping a fine performance. Throughout the game the keeper's handling was assured.

With time running out the ball reached Smith whose control and turn created the space for him to fire into the corner of the goal.

It was the touch of quality that was needed to unlock the defence. This week Ilkley are at home to Aberford (2.30).