Heath seal third-place finish with final day victory

The result sealed a third-place finish for Heath in an extremely competitive division, in which Scunthorpe clinched the title ahead of Huddersfield.

Playing in bright sunshine and in front of their home crowd, Heath were determined to sign off in style but early errors allowed Ilkley to break the deadlock with a sixth-minute penalty.

Spurred into action, Heath responded and, after Tom Clough had stolen the ball, Callum Harriott-Brown sent Jake Haynes through before he was stopped illegally by the scrambling visiting defence.

The hosts continued to string passes together and Haynes went close again, chasing down a huge kick from Chris Johnson. With the visitors struggling to contain the onslaught it came as no surprise to see Jake Haynes finish off a flowing move with an unconverted try in the corner midway through the half.

Heath were now playing with confidence and two minutes later, a clever pass to Sam Fletcher saw the winger set off on a mazy run to crash over for a try, converted by Johnson.

The visitors responded immediately with an attack and some inept tackling from the home defence saw Ilkley cross under the posts to make it 12-10.

On the half hour, an injury to Sam Fletcher saw Jonny Garrity enter the field as Heath went in search of adding to their tally and when Tom Clough won line-out ball an outrageous dummy pass from Johnson saw Max Rowntree cross the whitewash for a converted try.

Josh Crickmay and Harvey Keighley-Payne replaced Olly Cook and Ben Stringer as Ilkley once again went back on the attack and were rewarded with a penalty that put them six points behind going into the break.

The visitors then took the lead early in the second half, taking advantage of an early card for Max Rowntree by scoring a converted try under the posts.

The game ebbed and flowed as both teams looked for a score and it was Heath who regained the lead with a penalty 22-20 but when Harriott-Brown was penalised for a high tackle, Ilkley responded to lead 23-22.

Rowntree returned to the field, along with Ben Stringer replacing Seif Boussaada, as the game became quite tense and when Ilkley had a player carded, Heath took the opportunity to respond.

A clever penalty kick from Johnson found touch in the corner and a catch and drive saw Chris Moore emerge with the ball for a try, converted by Johnson with 20 minutes left to play.

This seemed to inspire Heath and with Ezra Hinchliffe prominent, it came as no surprise to see Ilkley give away yet another penalty and Johnson increased the lead.

The visitors came back with a penalty and it was still anyone's game but, once again, a training ground move saw Stringer soar high to collect the ball before Alex McFadden peeled off to release Harvey Keighley-Payne who crashed over for a converted try that made it 39-26.

Spirited Ilkley continued to look for a score and in injury time they were rewarded with a converted try but the final say went to Heath and Johnson kicked a penalty to clinch a 42-33 win.

Heath are in cup action this Saturday, travelling to Stockport in the first round of the Papa John’s Plate.