Ilkley Town winning run ends against Euxton Villa

Two second half goals from Euxton meant that Ilkley’s three-match winning streak came to an end this Saturday on a warm summer’s afternoon, writes Evan Seaman.

But it was Ilkley who started the brighter out of the two teams and were passing the ball around well.

Their first chance fell to striker Kevin Gonzalez when he found space in the penalty area, but Joshua Brooks came out to parry the ball away well.

However, Ilkley’s attacking dominance was starting to fade away after about half an hour, but they did have one more opportunity before half time.

Nathan Hunt played a low cross from the right flank to skipper Harry Brown, but his shot was comfortably saved by Brooks.

Not long into the second half, tensions were beginning to boil over when Euxton persistently fouled the hosts.

Then the visitors took the lead when Ethan Darr rose above Ilkley’s defence and headed it past Jordan Moorhouse into the net to make it 0-1 to Euxton.

For much of the second half, Ilkley were frustrated and struggled to create many opportunities.

But Ilkley thought they had equalized with not much longer left on the clock, but the linesman waved his flag for offside much to Ilkley’s frustrations.

This gave Euxton some momentum and rounded off their victory in added time when they caught Ilkley on the counter attack, and Ian Billington beat the last defender before slotting the ball home.

The overall performance from Ilkley was very competent, but lacked the end product and Euxton were able to take advantage.

The result means Ilkley have lost their second game of the campaign, whereas Euxton have strengthened their position in the playoffs.

Ilkley will be looking to bounce straight back when they have a long trip to Garstang but will be relishing the opportunity.