'Sheer effort and desire' earn Harrogate Railway 'brilliant' win over Ilkley Town

The Starbeck outfit scored three times in the first half against their promotion-chasing visitors as they recorded what was a fifth victory in six NCEL Division One outings.

And boss Lancaster could not hide his “delight” after the final whistle.

"It was brilliant from the lads on Friday,” he said. “What a win that is for us. I am absolutely delighted.

"To bounce back from a heavy defeat last Saturday and show the resilience to produce a performance like that against a very good team, I am delighted.

"We knew how Ilkley were going to set up, we’ve watched a few of their games, but they never stopped, and credit to them.

"But, the sheer effort and desire, and the drive to take the game to Ilkley was so evident and so, so pleasing.

"We scored some really good goals, we looked a threat from set-pieces and I thought that we looked really solid overall.”

Railway broke the deadlock after just 10 minutes of play, striker Desmond Okoro closing down the Ilkley goalkeeper and blocking his attempted clearance before calmly slotting home for 1-0.

Things got even better for the hosts just three minutes later when Sam Clothier delivered an inviting free-kick for Sam Drake to bullet home a fine header at the back post.

Ilkley did manage to pull a goal back on the half-hour as Harry Brown struck, however the home side’s two-goal cushion was restored on the stroke of half-time.

“Clothier sent another dangerous delivery into the box, and this one was met by Josh Lockwood, who smashed a volley into the corner of the net.

There were no more goals after the interval, but 11th-placed Railway had already done enough to secure a result which Lancaster believes should really whip up a bit of belief inside Station View.

“It is a huge confidence boost,” he added. “Now, we have to look to take that confidence into our remaining games and see how many points we can pick up.”