West Yorkshire League Division One: Oxenhope 3 Aberford 3

OXENHOPE took the lead on three occasions but were dragged back each time and had to settle for a point.

The home side struck early on five minutes when a perfect pass from James Bailey found Lee Reilly, who made no mistake with his finish.

Soon after the in-form striker nearly doubled his tally, beating the keeper but his shot was cleared off the line.

On the quarter-hour, the visitors levelled, their midfielder dribbling his way through the centre of the Oxenhope defence and striking an angled shot past keeper Stu Devlin.

Aberford started to get on top but, on a break downfield, another quality cross from Bailey was met perfectly with a flicked header by young Jacob Polignone to regain the lead.

It was still the visitors who pressed forwards, Ben White making a last-ditch saving tackle to prevent what a looked a certain goal and then Keann Shaw clearing off the line.

The pressure told on 40 minutes when, following a defensive error, the ball was lobbed into the box and headed in over Devlin.

After the break the game swung from end to end, with Aberford clipping the bar with a speculative long-distance shot. On 80 minutes Oxenhope regained the lead for a third time. Man of the match White won the ball in midfield and played it out to James Gill, who went past his marker, drew the keeper and rolled the ball back into the path of Dave Nelson to pass the ball into the net.

The home side soon had a chance to finish the match with a superb move. Matty Wilson won a fierce tackle to put Polignone on the ball. He passed to Gill who laid it off to Reilly, whose shot was stopped on the line at the second attempt by the Aberford keeper.

Then in the final minutes as Oxenhope defended manfully, a pass bobbled at the feet of Gill and the Aberford striker seized on the chance to drive in the final equaliser.

This was another bitter disappointment for Rec as they try to ease their way from the foot of the table but the last two performances have shown improvement and, with players to come back in the next few weeks, they remain positive.

On Saturday they travel to fellow strugglers Brighouse (2.30pm).

Oxenhope: Devlin, Shaw (Potts), Ward, Scott, Wilson, White, Bailey, Nelson, Reilly, Gill, Polignone.

* Oxenhope Reserves, who have been on a run of good form, were beaten 9-0 at Hunslet, who were packed with first-teamers as their game had been called off.

They will hope to bounce back on Saturday when they entertain Huddersfield Amateurs Reserves (2.30pm) in Alliance Division One.