ILKLEY Town suffered their first loss in pre-season, losing 2-0 on a warm afternoon to a Garforth Town team who are two tiers above them.

The first half started brightly for the hosts Ilkley, who were passing it around nicely.

After 10 minutes, they won a free-kick in a promising position but the wall managed to block Harry Brown’s goal-bound shot to snuff out any danger.

Garforth began to grow into the game and on 20 minutes their No 9 managed to get past the defence for a goal-scoring opportunity, only to hit the side netting.

The visitors then had a chance from a set-play just outside the box, but the forgettable shot was hoofed over the bar.

The away side were starting to mount some pressure on Ilkley and their No 7 dribbled his way past the last defender down the right flank, but Ilkley keeper Tim Edney showed good reflexes to get down quickly to save the attempt at goal.

Garforth then got their reward on the stroke of half-time when Mark Simpson got on the end of a nice through ball in the middle before slotting it into the bottom corner to break the deadlock.

The away team almost doubled their lead immediately after the break when their shot at goal looked to be heading in, but fortunately for the home side Alfie Heaton was on hand to make a goal-line clearance.

Rob Hunter’s outfit finally rounded off the victory when Dan Williams lobbed Ilkley’s keeper from close range to make the scoreline 2-0 to Garforth.

Ilkley nearly halved the deficit late on when Charlie George had a pop from distance but the shot whistled just wide of the post.

Evan Seaman