Town are sunk by early strike (From Wharfedale Observer)

Town are sunk by early strike

5:00am Thursday 26th April 2012 in Otley Town

Leeds City 1 Otley Town 0

A goal after just five minutes from Leeds City’s James Hochstrasser was enough to settle this hard-fought derby match between two well-matched teams at Adel.

Both sides went into the game knowing they had important cup finals coming up within days, but you wouldn’t have known it such was the ferocity of the tackling in the opening 20 minutes.

The challenges were generally hard and fair but an over fussy official decided he wanted centre stage and by the end had yellow carded four Town and two City players.

The game itself was not great – the poor state of the pitch made sure of that – but Leeds well orchestrated by midfielders Matt Johnson and Mich Cameron, adapted better to the conditions.

By general consensus deserved the three points which sees them move to within two points of third-placed Town but with an important game in hand.

Town did have their chances either side of half-time when the battling Chris Alderson got clear on a couple of occasions – but the striker failed to draw saves from ex Town keeper Andy Doey who by and large had an easy afternoon.

It was Alderson who had the one guilt-edged chance for Town with 20 minutes remaining when for once Leeds failed to clear but unfortunately his close-range hook shot sailed over the bar.

So an off day for Town but there were some excellent individual performances notably from Gav Phillis who kept Town in the game with several terrific one on one saves.

Tom Clare and skipper Jamie Simms also had good games at the back as did Sam Dexter in midfield.

However against the top teams in this very competitive league it’s impossible to secure the points if only half the team is up for it.