Boroughbridge 1 Otley Town 1

This felt more a case of two West Yorkshire League Premier Division points dropped rather than one point gained for Otley Town, when they were held to a draw at Boroughbridge on Saturday.

The opening exchanges were somewhat spoiled by the strong wind, and it took both teams some time to find any fluency.

Town were the first to assert themselves on the game and carved out several opportunities which they could have made more from.

They finally took the lead when Scott Firth, who had stayed upfield following a corner, drove at the heart of the home defence and was only halted by a blatant tug on his shirt.

The referee pointed to the penalty spot and Sam Jewell dispatched it with minimal fuss.

There was no further score before half-time, and the second half was unfortunately an altogether scrapp-ier affair.

The game was frequently interr-upted for the referee to lecture various players for persistent fouling and dissent.

Nevertheless, Town still looked the likelier team to score the next goal, and they went close to doing so on a couple of occasions.

The clearest opportunity fell to Toby Harris who was unfortunate to see his shot come back off the crossbar following an excellent run.

The home side created little, and it was difficult to see how the Town defence might be breached. Indeed, when Boroughbridge managed to equalise, it came from a freakish own goal.

A free kick swung into the box struck an unsighted James Davey and the ball looped past a stranded James Davies.

Town were crestfallen by this set-back and it wasn’t until the final minutes of the game that they put Bouroughbridge under any sus-tained pressure.

Although it was disappointing to not emerge with a victory, Town can take positives from a much-improved performance.

This Saturday sees them in League Cup action with a home tie against their old adversaries Field at the Old Showfield (2:30pm).