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Year Book 2021-22  

After two unfinished seasons due to the COVID pandemic it was hoped that the 2021-22 season would be a return to normal for non-league football. The Government announced that 19th July would be freedom day and there would be an end to restricted attendances at football grounds. For Ilkeston Town it was to be a new era following the installation of the new 4G pitch which was due to be completed by the end of July ’21. Close season had seen the club sign four new players, Charlie Wakefield, James Carvell, Remaye Campbell and Rashaan Frances.The first pre-season friendly on 10th July was at Quorn and ended 2-2. Zak Goodson (penalty) and Mason Lee scored the goals. This was followed on Tuesday night with a 5-1 victory at Gedling with Mason Lee, Trialist, Zak Goodson, Remaye Campbell and Jack Rodgers finding the net. Saturday 17th July we played at Leicester Nirvana but the Supporters bus had to be cancelled because two people on the bus the previous week had tested positive for Covid. As a precaution, It was then decided that all supporter buses would be cancelled for the remaining friendly games. The Northern Premier League fixtures were released on 14th July, Ilkeston’s first league match being away to promotion rivals, Stamford.
On 16th July Ilkeston announced the signing of Aman Verma. Ilkeston’s friendly with Leicester Nirvana  produced a 6-1 win with last season’s top scorer Alex Troke claiming a hat-trick. Jack Rodgers, Seke Spence and Jake Wright scored the other three. A week later Ilkeston made the short trip to Heanor and won 4-1 with goals from Remaye Campbell, Charlie Wakefield, Alex Troke and Billy Bennett. Next up in the pre-season friendlies was Newark. Martin Carruthers started with not his strongest side and we fell two behind before levelling at 2-2. Kole Lambert and Alex Troke scored our goals. The 4G pitch was completed just in time for the eagerly awaited TownFest on 31st July. The day included a Fans v Ilkeston Legends and a first team match against Long Eaton. Ilkeston came from 0-2 down to win by 4-3, Joe Maguire, Remaye Campbell (2) and Alex Troke scored the goals. On 1st August it was announced that Stern Irvine who had played as a trialist in some of the pre-season matches had signed for the club. In the final pre-season game Ilkeston met Coalville Town at the NMG and drew 2-2, goals from Troke (pen) and Carvell.
A week later on the 14th August, the season started.         


AUGUST  2021 
The fixture list had given Ilkeston the toughest of starts, an away trip to promotion favourites, Stamford. Ilkeston had good support because David Hilton had organised a free bus for fans. The day could not have been better and Ilkeston won the game by 3-1 with Billy Bennett scoring twice and Alex Troke getting the other. Tuesday night was the first home match and defensive mistakes led to 2-3 defeat by Sporting Khalsa. Campbell and Goodson scored our goals. Saturday 21st August we had a return visit to Quorn in the FA Cup and goals by Charlie Wakefield and Alex Troke saw us through to the next round. On the following Tuesday night we travelled to Daventry and came away with a 4-0 win. Campbell, Wakefield, Goodson and Troke were the scorers. Apparently Daventry had to play a weakened side due to several players being unavailable due to covid restrictions. It was announced that Mason Lee had left the club and Patrick Webb had been signed from Mickleover. Webb came on as a substitute in the next match which was against Bedworth United. James Reid saw two yellows in the first half and we were down to ten players with the score level and with a difficult second half to come. Alex Troke put us ahead but a Joe Maguire own goal levelled things up. Fortunately we scored early in the second half with a Kieran Fenton free kick and this was followed by a Remaye Campbell strike to give us a two goal cushion. We saw out the rest of the game and finished 3-1 winners. Next up was a difficult Bank Holiday trip to Belper.  Despite dominating most of the game, we twice fell behind but we took a point in a 2-2 draw. Patrick Webb opened his account and Zak Goodson scored our late equaliser.    


SEPTEMBER  2021  
We were drawn against league leaders, Halesowen in the FA Cup and that was our first match in September. Martin Carruthers made several changes to the team that played against Belper. The decision to not play our strongest side did not go down well with supporters but it was made knowing that we had an important league match just two days later at Coleshill and the league was our priority. Halesowen outplayed us in the first half and we were lucky not to be more than 2-0 down. The team was strengthened with three substitutions in the second half and we pulled a goal back though Goodson but we couldn’t find the equaliser. After the game Carruthers said he was hugely disappointed with the first half performance. It was back to the league on Monday night with a trip to Coleshill who had made a really good start with 12 points from 5 games. On a warm evening Coleshill were found to be a very robust side who took no prisoners but Ilkeston were excellent in the first half and led 3-1 at half time with goals by Wakefield, Fenton and Campbell. An early Coleshill goal after the restart gave the hosts momentum and we were forced to defend our lead which we successfully did. The following Saturday had been made a free admission day to give people a taster of the New Manor Ground experience and 1797 spectators took advantage. The match was against Chasetown who had made a surprisingly good start to their season. The  game didn’t go to plan and we lost 4-3.  It was 1-1 at half time but Chasetown then scored twice. We came back to 3-3 but it was the Scholars who found a winner. Campbell scored twice and Wakefield scored our other goal but we had now lost two of our opening three home games. Three days later we were home again to Spalding in what looked like a tricky game but we won easily by 5-0. Our scorers were Billy Bennett 2, Troke, Brown-Hill and an own goal. Next up was local rivals Carlton away who had made a really good start and were unbeaten. It took an added time equaliser by Wakefield to rescue a point for us but it was no more than we deserved. The following Saturday we travelled to Sutton Coldfield. We played poorly in the first half and trailed 0-1 but a much improved second half performance saw us win 2-1 with two goals by Zak Goodson. Before the next match, two new signings were announced, Right back, Tommy Williams who was previously with Sheffield United and goalkeeper Bradley Foster, a Derby County academy graduate.    

OCTOBER 2021 
October’s opening fixture was a home game against bottom club Histon. The visitors were demolished with four Ilkeston goals in each half giving us a 8-0 win. Campbell and Troke scored twice while Goodson, Maguire, Webb and an own goal made up the rest. On Saturday 9th October were away to Daventry town in the FA Trophy. The game ended goalless but we went through to the next round on penalties. Before the next match, the signing of experienced midfielder, Adam Chapman was announced. He made his debut against Soham Town Rangers but not long after coming on, he was sent off following an “off the ball” incident.  We won the game 3-1 after trailing 0-1 at half time. Aman Verma, Alex Troke and Patrick Webb scored our goals. The Soham match was Billy Bennett’s 100th appearance for the club. He had a hand in all of our goals and was voted MOM by the fans. Adam Chapman’s red card was rescinded after we submitted film of the incident. On 19th October the club announced another new signing, defensive midfielder, Jared Bird who had been captain of Barnsley Under 23s. He made three appearances for Barnsley in the Championship and eleven in League Two while on loan at Yeovil. Next up was the crucial away match against unbeaten league leaders Halesowen. Aman Verma was unavailable after being assaulted on a night out. We started the game strongly and nearly scored in the third minute when Charlie Wakefield’s shot was cleared off the line. We deservedly went ahead on 8 minutes through Zak Goodson and controlled the first half. Wakefield nearly made it 2-0 just before half time but his effort came back off the crossbar. Halesowen made a better start to the second half but we remained on top until just before the hour mark when Ross Durrant clashed with a Halesowen forward. The result was a red card for Durrant and we had to bring on substitute keeper Brad Foster and play the rest of the game a player short. With the extra man, Halesowen seized the initiative and we were forced  to defend our lead. Despite Halesowen’s best efforts we saw out the game and won 1-0. We were now only one point off the top.The final game of October was an FA Trophy 3rd qualifying round match away to Bromsgrove Sporting. Our hosts were a Step 3 club who play in the Southern League Premier Central. It was a below par performance and we lost 2-0. With no county cup matches this season, we now had just the league to concentrate on.The league table at 31st October shows how tight it was at the top  

Northern Premier League : Midlands Division  -  31st October 2021

                                         P   W   D   L    F    A    GD  Pts
1  Halesowen Town       13   9    3    1   33  14   19    30
2 Carlton Town              13   9    3    1   28  10   18    30
3  Chasetown                 13   9    3    1   31  15   16    30
4  Ilkeston Town            13   9    2    2   40  16   24    29
5  Coleshill Town           13   9    0    4   30  17   13    27
6  Belper Town               13   8    1   4   27  18     9     25
7  Stamford                    12   7    2    3   28  16   12    23
8  Loughborough D       13   6    2   5   30   25    5     20
9  Spalding United         13   6    2   5   21   25   -4     20
10  Shepshed Dynamo  13   4    5   4   21   18     3    17
11  Cambridge City        13   5    2   6   18   16     2    17
12  Corby Town              12   5   1   6    18   15     3    16
13  Sporting Khalsa       12   5   1   6    22  25    -3    16
14  Bedworth United      13   5   1   7   15   23    -8    16
15  Sutton Coldfield       12   2   5   5   12   15    -3    11
16  Yaxley                        13   3   1   9   17   35   -18   10
17  Wisbech Town          13   2   2   9   11   27    -16    8
18  Soham T Rangers    13   2   2   9   13   30    -17    8
19  Daventry Town         13   1   3   9     9   31    -22    6
20  Histon                        13   1   1  11    9   42    -33    4             


NOVEMBER 2021 
On 3rd November fans were shocked to hear that Mark Clifford had decided to step down from his position of Chairman to take up coaching. Three days later we returned to league action at home to Corby Town. Pre-season, the Steelmen were expected to be promotion contenders but were only mid table. It took us until the 70th minute to open the scoring but we won the game 4-0 with goals by Troke, Goodson, Webb and Campbell. The win lifted us to 3rd after Carlton only drew with bottom club Histon. Our next game was against Loughborough Dynamo who beat us 3-1 the last time we visited them on 14th March 2020 which was the last game of the curtailed 2019-20 season. The game attracted 429 spectators, which was Dynamo’s record attendance with a large proportion coming from Ilkeston. Zak Goodson gave us an early lead before the hosts gained the initiative. Ross Durrant pulled off an incredible double save to keep us ahead then five minutes before half time Goodson scored his second. Four minutes later Kieran Fenton fired home a free kick to give us an improbable 3-0 lead. Alex Troke and Remaye Campbell scored in the second half and the game was won by 5-1. The win took us to the top of the table for the first time as Halesowen were beaten by Coleshill. On Wednesday 17th November the supporters Group held an EGM when it was agreed to donate £8000 to the Club towards the cost of new floodlights which were needed because  the old lights had failed a lux test. The cost of the new floodlights was to be around £30,000. Dave Hilton and Andrew Nally attended the meeting and Dave gave an update on future plans. These plans included ditching the Academy and the Under 23 team because they were a drain on the Clubs finances. It was also mentioned that popular Mitchell Tait had been sidelined after it was alleged that his attitude was below that which was expected, something which was denied by Mitch. Supporters were also told that the Club were trying to purchase the New Manor Ground freehold from the Council. Saturday 20th November we were home to Cambridge City. We were lucky to be ahead at half time but a scintillating second half saw us win comfortably by 2-0. The gate was 731 and Goodson and Wakefield were the scorers. The last game in November was a visit to Yaxley. We woke up to snow on Saturday morning. That, together with the ferocious winds of Storm Arwen caused four matches in our league to be postponed but our match went ahead in atrocious conditions. It looked like we were going to drop points in a goalless draw but ten minutes from the end the floodlights went out. It then looked like the match would be abandoned but after a ten minute delay the lights came on again. A stalemate with the loss of two valuable points looked inevitable but right at the death Ollie Brown-Hill headed a winner to give us maximum points.        

DECEMBER 2021 
On December 4th we were home to Wisbech and it was a comfortable 5-1 win. Adam Chapman, Jared Bird and Tommy Williams scored their first goals for the club and Zak Goodson scored the other two. On 9th December it was announced  that Mitchell Tait had left Ilkeston and joined Basford. Next up we were away to Sporting Khalsa one of just two teams who had beaten us so far and they did it again. We threw away a 2-0 lead and lost 4-2 but Khalsa played exceptionally well and ended our nine match winning run. Zak Goodson scored again and our other goal was an own goal. Fortunately for us, the other leading teams were also dropping points so we remained in top spot. Shepshed did us a favour by beating Halesowen then Chasetown.  The final match before Christmas was the big one against pre-season promotion favourites, Stamford, who were seven points behind Ilkeston but with a game in hand. Ilkeston’s owners made the match free entry and a crowd of 1661 took advantage.  The new floodlights were installed in the week prior to the match.  The Daniels came into the game on the back of a ten match unbeaten run and dominated the first half. They should have been well ahead by the interval but Ross Durrant made a string of saves including a penalty to keep us level. We did better in the second half and nearly won the match in the final moments when a Stamford defender headed a Joe Maguire header off the line. But to be fair, a draw was the least that Stamford deserved. Although the match ended goalless many spectators agreed it was great entertainment. Ross was voted a clear Man of the Match but credit must also go to our defenders who played their part in the keeping a clean sheet. On 23rd December supporters were surprised by the announcement that August signing Patrick Webb had now left and joined Basford. As the new Omicron variant of COVID19 was now sweeping the country, many of the Premiership matches over the Christmas period were called off due to too many players testing positive. This raised the spectre of another season being cut short at our level.The final  match of 2021 was an away game against Shepshed Dynamo. Shepshed were mid- table but were in a rich vein of form. Their previous four matches had all been against teams in the top seven and they had won two and drawn two. A Boxing Day crowd of 615 turned up to watch a keen encounter on a cold and wet afternoon. The mud bath pitch proved a leveller and Ilkeston were forced to defend in the second half after Alex Troke headed us in front just before half time. At the end of December we had passed the half way point in the season. The top seven was made up of the same promotion hopefuls and only the positions of each team had changed. These seven were distancing themselves from the teams below so it was looking more and more likely that the future champions and the teams making the playoffs could be any five from these seven. 


Northern Premier League : Midlands Division - 31 December 2021

                                         P   W   D   L   F    A   GD  Pts
1  Ilkeston Town            21  15   3   3   60  22   38   48
2  Belper Town              22  15   2   5   48  28   20   47
3  Halesowen Town      20  14   3   3   44  20   24   45
4  Chasetown                21  13   5   3   50  24   26   44
5  Coleshill Town          21  13   2   6   44  25   19   41
6  Stamford                   20  11   5   4   48  25   23   38
7  Carlton Town            20  10   7   3   37  20   17   37
8  Bedworth United      21  10   3   8   30  28    2    33
9  Sporting Khalsa       20  10   2   8   37  35    2    32
10  Loughborough D    21    9   2  10  43  44   -1   29
11  Shepshed D             21   6   8   7    31  32   -1   26
12  Spalding United      20   7   5   8    29  38   -9   26
13  Cambridge City       21   7   4  10   30  31   -1   25
14  Yaxley                      21   8   1  12   34  50  -16  25
15  Corby Town             21   6   2  13   26  36  -10  20
16  Daventry Town        21   4   5  12   22  50  -28  17
17  Sutton Coldfield      20   3   6  11   24  36  -12  15
18  Wisbech Town         20   4   3  13   21  45  -24  15
19  Histon                       21   2   5  14  19   55  -36  11
20  Soham T Rangers    21   2   3  16  19   52  -33   9    



        
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Last edited by Matchman (30/12/2021 8:42 AM)