I wasn't at the Mickleover game due to illness but it must be fair to say that the performance against Matlock was a big improvement. Matlock deserved to win but Ilkeston stayed in the game right to the end. In a scoreless fist half there were three disallowed goals, two by Matlock and one by Ilkeston. Matlock got the crucial goal in the second half and after Thornberry got a second yellow Ilkeston's task became too difficult. Ilkeston players picked up five bookings in total whereas Matlock received none which seemed a strange statistic after watching the game. Ilkeston failed to create many scoring chances and there lies the problem. One positive in my opinion was the performance of Reece Horne who came on in the second half and looked very promising. A Bank Holiday crowd of 474 watched the game.