Otley Town 2 Shelley 1

Otley Town secured a vital West Yorkshire League Premier Division victory on Saturday despite having two players sent off.

Town were down to nine men when Dan Chadwick scored the winning goal after Toby Harris and Sam Jewell were shown red cards.

Town began the game strongly, imposing themselves on their opponents from the outset, with Harris in particular causing the Shelley defence all sorts of problems with his strong running and combative approach.

Unfortunately he took things a step too far and an early yellow card following an altercation with the visiting goalkeeper had reper- cussions later in the game.

It was however Harris who was responsible for Town scoring the goal that their dominance richly deserved, going down under a rash challenge from a Shelley defender, with Jewell converting the penalty.

On the rare occasions that Shelley threatened they found Town’s goalkeeper James Davies in imperious form.

Try as they might, Town could not add a decisive second goal to underline their dominance.

Town suffered two setbacks in quick succession as Harris was shown a second yellow card after an altercation with an opponent and Jewell was dismissed.

Jewell was cautioned for a poor challenge and then saw red for showing dissent at the decision.

Town looked to have shot themselves in the foot when Shelley equalised with 25 minutes still to play.

Despite being down to nine men Town’s players tackled, chased and harried to deny Shelley space.

In truth, there were actually not too many moments of danger for the home side to endure, and when Chadwick, outstanding on the day, timed a late run into the box to perfection to glance home a beautifully delivered Scott Firth free-kick, Shelley were a beaten side.

Town saw out the remaining few minutes with relative ease and they left the field with the applause and approval of the home support ringing in their ears.