Ilkley complete impressive turnaround against nine-man Euxton Villa

Ilkley pulled off an impressive win yesterday against Euxton Villa thanks to a brace from Kevin Gonzalez and a strike from Nathan Hunt which puts them back into the playoff picture, writes Evan Seaman.

But at the start of the game Ilkley struggled to find their feet and Euxton were controlling possession in the first 10 minutes.

The Baht’atters did have the ball in the back of the net though after a nice finish from Gonzalez, but the linesman flagged for offside.

Shortly afterwards, the hosts opened the scoring when Rajwinder Uppal scored after about 20 minutes of play to give them the advantage so far.

However, there was an almost immediate response from Sam Dexter’s side when goalkeeper Joshua Brooks got caught off his line and Nathan Hunt hoofed the ball into an open net from long range to make the game all square again.

In the second half, the game turned on its head when Nathan Parish was sent off for a second bookable offence which meant Ilkley now had a man advantage.

And they did take full advantage after winning a throw in and Gonzalez got on the end of the ball before slotting it home from close range and put the visitors ahead for the first time in the game.

Things then got from bad to worse for Euxton who went down to nine men when Uppal was given the marching orders for an altercation with the linesman.

Then right at the end of the match, Ilkley won a penalty and Gonzalez did the honours to make sure of the victory for Ilkley.

The result is a great one for Ilkley who move up to second in the playoffs, whereas for Euxton it is a hammer blow who drop down to fourth.

Next up for Ilkley is away to Atherton LR who are also in the playoffs at the moment, so it will be another big game for The Baht’atters.