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Today, Boxing Day we should have been playing an away game against Carlton Town. On a very wet Boxing Day last year we played against Carlton at the NMG and were beaten by 4-2. 

These were the teams :

 Ilkeston Town team
1 Ross Durrant, 2 Fabian Smith, 3 Kieran Fenton, 4 Danny Racchi, 5 Chris Robertson, 6 Dean Freeman, 7 Richard Whyman, 8 Ryan Campbell-Gordon, 9 Kieran Wells, 10 Reco Fife, 11 Jamie Walker.
Subs : 12 Kole Lambert, GK Richard Stainsby, 15 Jermain Hollis, 16 Alex Marshall, 18 Thomas Marshall. 

Carlton Town team :
1 Jack Steggles, 2 Dan Brown, 3 Dan Fletcher, 4 Martin Ball, 5 Toby Moore, 6 Tom Maddison, 7 Dan Elliot, 8 Oliver Clarke, 9 Arron Opoku, 10 Neil Davie, 11 Tyler Johal.
Subs : 12 Eli Bako. 14 Oliver Robinson, 15 Morn Akains, 16 Daryll Thomas, 18 Kam Wilson.  


This was the Carlton match report : 

OUTSTANDING BOXING DAY LOCAL DERBY WIN PUTS MILLERS BACK INTO PLAYOFF PLACE. 

Carlton Town made it 6 wins from 9 away games with an outstanding Boxing Day win in front of the biggest crowd in the division as 468 witnessed Carlton’s 4-2 win at Ilkeston Town. Carlton after an outstanding run, had lost their last two games and there are not many more difficult fixtures in the League than Ilkeston away. Chairman Mick Garton stood with supporters for the whole game and was delighted with the way Tommy and Mark’s team responded after the two recent setbacks. “Ilkeston have fantastic support and but for another foul afternoon of weather, I’m sure the gate would have been well over 500” said the Millers Chairman. “We might have been in the minority support wise, but our travelling fans were very vocal and really got behind the team, the fact the players and management came over at the end and acknowledged that, was much appreciated by the supporters”  

“I thought it was an excellent performance to a man and I was proud of the lads and the management team today, we are well above where we expected to be when we made the decision to bring Tommy and Mark onboard and to go into 2020 in a playoff position is a fantastic achievement” continued the Chairman.

For the record, Kerian Wells gave Ilkeston the lead after Ilkeston started brightly, but Carlton were always in the game and really stepped up to the plate after going a goal behind. The impressive Arron Opoku was brought down in the box, but skipper Tom Maddison missed his first penalty for the club, hitting the post but the equally impressive Tyler Johal was on hand to volley in the rebound. Johal then made it two after Oliver Clark won an important header from a corner, before the goal of the game on the stroke of half time, started with a punched clearance from Jack Steggles and brilliantly finished by Aaron Opoku with a superb chip over the Ilkeston keeper.

Ilkeston made a flying start to the second half and Freeman pulled a goal back for the home side after Carlton failed to clear their lines from a corner, but Carlton responded by continuing to play decent passing football, although the goal came following a set play with Oliver Clark’s header beating the Ilkeston keeper who was clearly distracted by the brilliantly positioned Niall Davey who along with Clark was another star of this outstanding performance.

Final word to the Millers Chairman! “This is right up there with the away win at Stamford and the away win in the other local Derby at Worksop Town where I also stood behind the goal with our supporters”
Ilkeston is clearly a club now going in the right direction with the people they have on board and we should feel proud of going there and getting that kind of result, we look forward to hosting them on Easter Monday, it was also nice to bump into a few friends today who I have not seen for a while and with that and the positive result, it made it a very special day” concluded the Millers Chief.