SILSDEN travelled to local neighbours Eccleshill United for their first competitive game of the season, an FA Cup extra preliminary round tie, and came away with a magnificent 3-0 win.

Eccleshill were on the attack from the kick-off and Alfie Darke, in the Silsden goal, was forced to make his first save from Luke Aldrich in the opening minute.

United pushed Silsden back and both Josh Kaine and Myles Foley were forced to block goal-bound efforts. Foley was booked in the ninth minute as the Cobbydalers were pinned in their own half.

Silsden then began to settle and Mark Trueman saw a shot blocked before Eccleshill broke forward, with Sumaili Cissa almost catching Darke out.

Trueman began controlling the midfield for the Sils though, and then, when Joe Mitchell broke up the left, he managed to slip the ball to Khurram Shazad in an inviting position.

It took two defenders to halt the Silsden man at the expense of a corner. Instead of driving the ball into the box, it was slipped back to Trueman.

He curled the ball into Foley who volleyed agonisingly wide of the far post.

United were looking dangerous when they broke forward but the Silsden defence, marshalled superbly by Shaun Airey, held them at bay.

Mitchell hit a low shot on target at the other end and then ten minutes before half-time, Matthias Britton broke clear, as the home defence had all pushed towards the halfway line.

Brad Emmerson, in the home goal, denied Britton with an outstretched leg.

Three minutes later, he was thwarted again but Britton finally got his reward on 40 minutes, when he headed home Joe Mitchell’s cross to give Silsden the lead.

With the half time whistle imminent, Airey made his only mistake of the game, but Eccleshill forward Talent Ndlovu could only shoot into the arms of Darke.

Two minutes into the second half, Silsden were two up. A superb run up the right from Britton ended with a pinpoint pass to former Eccleshill striker Antony Brown, who cut back across the six yard box before hitting a low shot into the net.

Four minutes later, Brown ran on to a cross from Shazad to flick the ball home at the near post and make it 3-0.

Brown then had a chance to complete his hat-trick but shot wide, before Shazad saw an effort saved.

The home side were shell-shocked and to make matters worse, their captain Aran Basi was sent off on 64 minutes.

Brown then set up another chance for Britton, whose effort was off target, then Foley was denied by a superb save from Emmerson.

Silsden were still determined to attack but almost paid the price for over-committing too many men forward.

However, substitute Marcel Chigumira shot wide at the other end, before he was denied in the dying minutes when Alfie Darke tipped his thunderbolt on to the bar.