Baht’atters Face Garstang After Long Break
Ilkley Town will be raring to go when they host Garstang this Saturday, writes Evan Seaman. Several postponements due to waterlogged and frozen pitches has meant their last league game was on the 27th of December 2022, when they beat Steeton 2-0.
Sam Dexter’s side have been able to play a mid-season friendly in the meantime though, as they beat Silsden 6-1 thanks to a brace from young midfielder Alfie Dean, and other goals from Tom Fleming, Kevin Gonzalez, Josh Parker and skipper Harry Brown.
Performances like these against higher league opposition will undoubtedly raise morale ahead of the fixture against Garstang this weekend. In terms of recent form, Ilkley will be looking to pick up where they left off last year as they won four out of their last six games.
Whereas for Garstang, they will be hoping to kickstart their season out of the mid-table and have the opportunity to bounce up to ninth from 11th if they get a result against Ilkley.
Garstang are currently having a difficult run of form, as they haven’t won any of their last six games in all competitions so they will be aiming to bounce back quickly.
However, Ilkley will need to watch out for Garstang’s current top goal scorer Zac Clark, who has scored an impressive 10 goals in 14 appearances and will be looking to add to his tally this Saturday.
As for Ilkley, they have a few players in-form and will be hoping James Nightingale and Shaban Mehmeti can continue to pick up MOTM performances, currently occupying six between them thus far.
(Photo Credit: Paul O’Brien)