The U16's Knights made the most of their opportunity to play on the main Stadium pitch for the first time as they secured an excellent 2-0 win against title chasing Bingley.

Full credit should go to Bingley and their coaches for they played in the game. After a couple of late withdrawals Bingley were left with 11 players. However this did include some real quality on the team sheet including two of the best players in the league in Max Roper and Liam Atkinson...The every fact they will both only get this mention demonstrates how well Silsden dealt with them on a day that both sides will remember.

A decent sized crowd watched a cagey opening 10 minutes as both sides settled into the game and got used to the space available on a well prepared pitch.

Silsden's defence was extremely well marshalled by Tom Elliot as he, Oliver, George and Finlay set a solid base in front of the impressive Will Sullivan between the sticks for the home side.

Both sides looked solid and clear cut chances were at a premium throughout as both side looked for an opening. But on 14 minutes Jake passed the ball in from the right to Phi whose vision allowed him to play a great through ball to striker Charlie Hewlett who then cooly chipped the keeper from the edge of the box..1-0 Silsden and something to build upon.

On 17 minutes the first of two incidents that tarnished the game occurred as towering centre back Oliver Strzelecki stooped low to win the ball but in doing so was caught under his right eye with a stray boot as both players went for the ball. After a lengthy stoppage Oliver had to eave the pitch with a head injury that has left him with a black eye and a story to tell at school in the morning. For his safety he was taken off and would unfortunately play no further part in the game.

With one of the teams leaders forced off George moved to CB and Jack slotted into the back 4 to give arguably his best perfomance of the season.

The remainder of the first half saw both side trade half chances as Jos Jones and Sam Boucher covered every blade of grass in the middle of the pitch winning the ball back for Aqib and Phil to demonstrate some lovely touches and quick feet.

The first half came to an end with a final Bingley attack that Will dealt with comfortably.

The Knights went into half-time with a deserved 1-0 lead but Bingley changed formation and came out strongly into begin the second half and the home side were struggling to get out of their own half. Bingley won a series of corners that were well delivered by their MOM, Charlie Earl but ultimatly they couldn't find the finishing touch his quality deliveries deserved.

Bingley were growing into the game on the hour mark as Silsden utilised their bench with Zulq, Mikky, Stan and Harry all coming on and contributing to an excellent team effort.

On 70 minutes the second sour moment of the game occurred as a Bingley player refused to heed numerous warnings from the ref and his own coaches to stop showing dissent and there was no choice but to send him to the sidelines. It is always unfortunate when a young player looses their temper and we can only hope that he reflects and apologises to his teammates and coaches for his reaction and demonstrates the qualities the rest of eh lads showed throughout the majority of the game.

As is often the case the dismissal lead to a fractious few minutes but things settled down and Bingley continued to push for an equaliser but Silsden repelled everything they threw at hem.

With just under 5 minutes to play and just as the nerves could kick in Aqib Ali played a good pass through to Jake who made it 3 goals in 2 games form him personally as he calmly slotted past the Bingley goalie and took the wind out of Bingley's sails and the last few minutes were played out with minimal fuss as the Knights secured an excellent 2-0 victory over one of the leagues top sides.

Credit should be given to the Bingley players as all of them played on a large pitch with no substitutes and both teams included lads who were fasting for Ramadan and unable to take on fluid during a physical game.

The success on field continue after the game as players and parents from both teams gathered in the Presidential Suite and raised £210 towards the clubs changing room repair fund. A big thank you to everyone for this.

So the Knights end the season UNBEATEN (on the main pitch) at home and we go to Otley next week hoping to finish the season strongly.