Otley Town 2 Heckmondwike 3

In a turgid affair on a pitch barely playable Otley Town disappointingly lost their relegation battle with bottom club Heckmondwike.

With the wind in their faces Town started in the worst possible way giving away a freak goal after 15 minutes. Worse was to follow when in-form centre-back Terry Pearson was badly injured in a tackle and had to be replaced by stalwart Ian Wolfenden. The rest of the first-half was fairly even but the standard of play was very poor.

With a favourable wind Manager Eli felt that Town could still get a result in the second-half but this was soon dismissed as Heckmondwike scored two more goals by the 70th minute. Both goals were avoidable and the concensus was that young 'keeper Luke Holroyd was at fault with both.

Three goals down and effectively out of it, the Otley players rolled up their sleeves and made a fist of it pulling goals back through a Dan Jowett rocket and an Ian Wolfenden toe-poke.

Intense pressure saw them creating four further good chances but it was a case of too little too late as Town saw three more points go-begging.

Best on the day for Town was Paul North with Wolfenden and Paul Driver also showing that they cared.

This Saturday Town travel to Storthes Hall for a 2.30pm kick-off.