Luke Baldwin double seals all 3 points for Ilkley
Ilkley Town 3-1 Brigg Town
Victory for Ilkley at the MPM stadium following a double from Luke Baldwin and a goal by centre-back Lewis Storton.
There were two debutants in Jacob Mistry’s line up including 18-year-old centre back Ethan Weaver and experienced full back Helmo Silva who helped seal all 3 points.
Ilkley started the game the brighter of the two sides following a brilliant left to right move, with Callan Parker Wells finding Eddy Prata who found Luke Baldwin on the right wing who cut inside and found the back of the net to give Ilkley the lead inside five minutes.
Ilkley continued with the flowing moves just two minutes later as full back Alex Stewart found Eddy Prata who was inches away from making it two.
After this melee of opportunities for Town they were soon punished after as Ilkley invited pressure onto them and around the 30-minute mark Jonathan Oglesby finished with a perfectly placed header to level things which rounded off the first half.
Ilkley began things very well in the second period, but Brigg began to create chances due to the amount of possession as Mistry’s side looked to hit the play-off hunters on the counter-attack with pace.
Ilkley saw Jack Mason and Prince Attakorah introduced to the game, adding some real pace and venom into the counter attacks of Ilkley.
It was beginning to look like a point was all Ilkley could achieve until the 85th minute where Ilkley were rewarded a free kick on the left side of the box and goalscorer Luke Baldwin delivered a wonderful delivery onto the head of Luke Storton who put Ilkley in front.
Ilkley remained strong at the back and stuck to the gameplan of counter attacking with pace, and in the 90th minute the plan brought its rewards following a counter attack from a Brigg attack including Prata, Attakorah and Mason.
As Attakorah found Jack Mason out wide on the right side, Mason slipped a ball in towards the outstretched Luke Baldwin to toe it home to seal all three points for Ilkley and earn himself a brace.
This result moves Ilkley nine points clear of the danger zone and a big breath of relief can be had for Mistry.
Mistry expressed this by saying “It’s an extremely important three points first and foremost, and I don’t think it’s anything less than we deserved.”
Report by Harry Thorne