FOLLOWING Saturday’s first win of the season away at Bottesford Town, Silsden built on that with a 2-2 home draw against Barton Town in midweek.

Mo Qasim and Joe Jagger turned things round after an early goal to ensure the Cobbydalers led at the break, but the visitors nicked a point after scoring a late equaliser.

Silsden manager Danny Forrest made minimal changes from the win over Bottesford, only bringing in Harry Parsons to replace the injured Matty Moses at full back for this NCEL Premier Division clash.

Ben Hinchcliffe fluffed a great chance at the far post for Barton in the opening moments, failing to turn the ball home from close range, but he soon slotted an effort past Sammy Lee in the Silsden goal to give his side the lead.

Lee was being kept busy, making a couple of good saves to stop Barton doubling their advantage,

The Cobbydalers did manage to break out though and following Kyle Hancock’s free kick, a header from Shaun Airey deep in the visitors’ box caused Tom Davie to almost head into his own net.

On 17 minutes, following good play from Khurram Shazad on the left, a clever pass was played to Jagger, who fired a low shot in, which Swans goalkeeper Michael Emery saved at the foot of his right hand post, pushing it round for a corner.

Once again the visitors came close to adding to their lead following another excellent delivery from Curtis Bateson’s corner, but Davie’s free header drifted wide.

In the 25th minute, Qasim was fouled on the corner of the Swans’ box.

Hancock stepped up to take the resulting free kick, getting the ball up and over the defensive wall but clipping the crossbar instead of rippling the net.

Silsden made the breakthrough to get themselves back into the game on 35 minutes.

Following a throw in on the left, Jake McEneaney found Shazad, who flicked the ball through to Mo Qasim.

The ball was played inside to Jagger to control and played back for Qasim to smash the ball past Emery and level the scores.

Silsden were now getting on top and a couple of minutes later Jagger did well to hold the ball up before playing it to Qasim, who cut in from the right.

Unfortunately, his angled shot went narrowly wide, smashing into the stanchion.

With half-time fast approaching, new signing Brad Riley reversed a ball into Hancock, who curled his long pass into Jagger.

He was forced out wide on the right, but managed to cut back inside, beat his man and get a shot in on goal.

Although Emery managed to parry the effort, the ball broke back to Jagger, who made no mistake from close range to put Silsden 2-1 up before the break.

The first opportunity of the second period went the way of the visitors in the 48th minute, when McEneaney’s under-pressure back pass to Lee resulted in his clearance being blocked by Hinchcliffe, fortuitously rebounding away safely for a goal kick.

Minutes later, following a foul on Jagger deep in the visitors’ half, Davie was sin-binned for 10 minutes by the referee following him showing dissent against the official’s decision.

Silsden’s numerical advantage enabled them to dominate possession and during this spell, Qasim, out on the left, played a ball inside to Shazad.

He, in turn, controlled it before passing for Joe Mitchell. However his shot from outside the box drifted narrowly wide.

Town’s star man Bateson had had a relatively quiet start to the second half, but, just to remind everybody that he was still on the pitch, he cut in and shot, only for Arley Barnes to bravely block the ball.

The ball fell to Hinchcliffe, whose attempted overhead kick went over the bar.

In the 71st minute, substitute Jack Normanton was played in on the left hand side. He cut inside and squared the ball across goal to Jagger beyond the far post, but the target man struck his shot into the ground.

The ball bounced up on to Davie’s hand before the big defender launched the ball out of the box amid vehement appeals for a penalty, which the referee duly ignored.

Straight afterwards, Barnes cleared a free kick. Normanton latched on to the loose ball in midfield before playing it through brilliantly to Qasim, whose surging run ended with him lashing his shot over.

But with just nine minutes remaining, a long ball forward on the right from deep inside the Town half found substitute Noel Burdett’s run, which looked tight for offside.

However, in the absence of the assistant’s flag, the referee waved play on and the substitute raced clear before pulling the ball across to Bateson.

He beat his man on the outside and drilled a low shot past Lee at his near post to level the scores once again.

Both teams pressed for a winner in the dying minutes, but Jagger fired over following good work from Normanton, and Qasim’s tantalising low cross minutes later didn’t get the finish it deserved for Silsden.

At the other end, Airey did well to block Hinchcliffe’s shot at goal as the Swans tried to finish on a high.

In the end, both sides had to settle for a point, but a draw was probably a fair reflection on the game overall.

Silsden next game is in the league tomorrow at Knaresborough Town.