Ilkley stumble against promotion chasers Holker

Ilkley Town AFC 0 - 1 Holker Old Boys

Ilkley Town AFC failed to get a result against high-flying Holker Old Boys at the MPM Stadium as the visitors continued their push for promotion, writes Evan Seaman.

An opportunity nearly fell to Sam Dexter’s side at the beginning of the game when Nicholas Brayshaw pressed goalkeeper Samuel Stephens and forced him to make a mistake, but skipper Harry Brown wasn’t quick enough to get to the loose ball and the chance was wasted.

In the first half Ilkley made some promising forward passes, but Nathan Hunt picked up a hat-trick of offsides in short succession which ended a few chances for them to get the opening goal.

Then at the other end of the field, Holker caught Ilkley on the break and Luke Davey scored to make it 1-0 to the visitors.

The Bah’tatters were now struggling by the time the second half started and looked short of confidence as they were misplacing passes and losing 50/50 challenges.

And then things got from bad to worse for Ilkley when they conceded a penalty, and Jamie Hodsgon did the honours and doubled Holker’s advantage.

Towards the end of the game, Ilkley huffed and puffed but could not trouble Holker’s defence who were very organized.

The result means Ilkley fall down the table slightly to 8th position but are still only one point off the playoffs so this bad run of form can be easily reversed.

Whereas Holker have strengthened their position in the playoffs further and currently sit third in the league.