Ilkley Town 1 Sherburn White Rose 7

AFTER picking up several knocks in their shock midweek West Yorkshire Challenge Cup defeat against Alwoodley, Ilkley suffered a West Yorkshire League Premier Division hammering at Ben Rhydding Sports Club.

Sherburn took the lead after just four minutes when Arran Hodgson reacted quickest to a low cross, tapping in from close range.

Soon after it was 2-0, as James Arnold fired home with the referee playing advantage for an earlier foul.

Ilkley prevented further setbacks but rarely threatened their rivals until the 40th minute when Hodgson broke the offside trap crossing low for Arnold to make it 3-0.

Soon after the break Sherburn netted a fourth, as James Wilson's short back-pass was gobbled up by Hodgson who rounded James Hirst and drilled it into the net.

It was 5-0 after 57 minutes, as Adam Knight cracked a long-range effort past Hirst. The sixth followed shortly, as Tim Edney and James Hirst's miscommunication on a clearance allowed Dominic Claxton to steal possession and find the open net.

Further defensive woes allowed Sherburn to make it 7-0 with a quarter of the game still to play, with Daniel Ramalho the player to capitalise.

Despite showing very little attacking threat throughout the game, Ilkley were able to get on the scoresheet when they were awarded a fortuitous penalty with the referee spotting an apparent push in the box.

Ilkley's top scorer Lee Spires stepped up and with a little help from the post, found the bottom right corner to make it 7-1 at full-time.

Ilkley manager Simon Armstrong was philosophical in defeat. He said: "They played 3-5-2 and were very compact and organised so credit to them.

"They played quick balls over the top to use the pace up-front and it worked, we really struggled to deal with it.

Armstrong believes Ilkley's shock cup defeat to Alwoodley earlier in the week contributed to the poor performance.

"I think what you saw was a hangover from the Alwoodley match" he said.

"It really hit us hard the manner of that defeat, and we carried that into today".

"We had a bad 17 minutes in the cup and a bad 90 minutes today, for which we have been heavily punished.”