SILSDEN boss Danny Forrest admits that the club’s first league defeat caught him by surprise.

The Cobbydalers registered 17 successive fixtures to go 13 points clear at the top of Division One in the Hallmark Security League before being beaten 1-0 at Holker Old Boys.

Forrest said: “We didn’t see that first defeat coming and I can only praise Holker for the way they played and the way they stopped us from playing.”

Holker were 14th when the hosted the runaway leaders in the middle of November, but they held Silsden at bay and scored a stoppage time winner.

The Cobbydalers were knocked out of the West Riding County Cup 2-1 the following midweek away to last season’s beaten finalists Tadcaster Albion, but rounded November off with a home win over Nelson.

They are yet to play in December after the last two Saturday’s have been blighted by the weather.

Forrest added: “Holker played with a back three and had three workhorses across the centre of midfield. They set up to stop us playing our game and I don’t think they had any real ambitions of winning the game.

“But we got frustrated and in the end we ran out of ideas. I take the blame for the defeat because I had us all pushing for a winner and they broke away, fair play to them they earned it.

“Three or four months into the season we should have been ready for that. People talk, managers, coaches and players talk to each other and they will all be out to stop Silsden.

“We should have been a bit more inventive and we’ll have to be in future because I expect it’ll happen again. We’ve put ourselves in that position now where we’re a scalp for the others in our division.

“We came back from that first defeat with a win in a tough game in difficult conditions. The pitch was heavy it was hard going and we were up against a tough opponent in Nelson but we just got the win and perhaps it’s time for us to just grind a few results out.

“We had hoped the win would be the start of another run but the weather intervened and we haven’t played this month. We’re not falling behind because every club has had games off.

“I’ve asked the lads to keep their focus and to be fair to them they’ve been brilliant and the training has been good. We’re just waiting to get back to picking points up again.”