East End Park 5 Otley Town 1

ANOTHER poor day at the office for Otley Town saw them slip to a comprehensive defeat at bottom club East End Park.

Town have an annoying habit of making life difficult for themselves, and so it proved yet again as they conceded two sloppy goals in the first ten minutes to leave themselves facing an uphill struggle to claim anything from the game.

To their credit, they battled valiantly, and were unlucky not to pull a goal back through Dan Chadwick’s attempted lob which the goalkeeper just reached, or through Harry Higgins who clipped the crossbar with a lofted effort.

Early in the second period when Town were in the ascendancy, East End Park broke to score a third goal and that looked to have knocked the stuffing out of the away side, especially when a fourth goal was shipped soon afterwards.

Hearteningly though, Otley refused to lie down and die, and when Toby Harris pulled a goal back it gave a visible lift to all the players. They began to take the game to their opponents, and had Tom Walker steered home a Harris cross instead of hitting the post, who knows what might have happened.

Yet another “what if” for Town to ponder, while a late fifth goal for the home side lent a flattering air to the final result.

This Saturday sees Town back at home with a game against another struggling team, Brighouse Old Boys, where they will hope for a better result.