Ilkeston Town 1 Willenhall Town 0

By Russell Brown

A bizarre and ultimately cruel night for the Reds as they suffered a narrow defeat at league leaders Ilkeston.

Bizarre, as the game was held up for fully thirty minutes whilst a replacement official had to be sought after the referee was forced to retire hurt. Cruel, as a goal a minute after the interval, a deflected Paul Smith goal, gave the Robins an undeserved home win.

The night started off with a minutes silence, immaculately observed for former Nottingham Forrest boss Brian Clough.

Ilkeston were off the starting blocks quickly and fired in some early crosses to test Nathan Vaughan who reacted well under the pressure to punch clear.

Willenhall settled, but the game was thrown into confusion in the 20^th minute when referee Mr Newbould, was struck in the face by a clearance and having appeared to shaken off the blow, the official suddenly staggered to his senior assistant and was forced to leave the field suffering from concussion.

An appeal around the ground failed to find an official in the New Manor ground, so the delay was compounded as a replacement was sent for from the locality.

After the half an hour enforced break, both sides resumed and the visitors started to get a hold of the game with Craig Slater, then Richard Field firing efforts just off target.

However, a minute after half time, the Reds suffered a lapse in concentration and were made to pay dearly. The Robins moved the ball down the right and when Smith found himself in space at the edge of the area, his low shot clipped a defender to leave Vaughan flatfooted at his near post.

Willenhall upped the tempo and twice striker Karl Edwards was on the end of two good crosses, but his headed efforts were wide. But Ilkeston were handed a real lifeline midway through the half when a corner was powerfully headed past home keeper Turner and Nigel Jemson, standing well over the goal line, headed the ball out. All the visitors turned to acclaim the goal, but the stand in official amazingly waved play on.

The home side were forced to attempt to play out time as Willenhall surged forward in search of the equaliser, but they had a guilt edged opportunity to finish off the Reds when goalscorer Smith was one on one with the keeper in injury time but wasted the chance with a wild shot wide.

Ilkeston Report

Ilkeston Town stuck with the same side that were dumped out of the FA Cup Gresley Rovers although Paul Eshelby replaced Chris Thompson on the bench. Both the Robins and Willenhall started the game hoping to get an early lead but neither side could have realised how the referee would dominate the proceedings. Mr Newbold was struck by a Willenhall clearance and eventually had to leave the field of play with concussion. After a beak of 35 minutes Ilkeston Town officials managed to contact a referee from West Hallam who left his comfy chair to take over as a linesman.

The teams returned to the fray but it took until the forty seventh minute before the game came to life. Darren Knowles sent over a deep cross which was headed into the path of Paul Smith (pictured left) by Nigel Jemson. Smith coolly slotted the ball home from six yards out to give the Robins the lead. Willenhall nearly equalised just four minutes later but Nigel Jemson was on hand to head the ball off the line. The visitors pressed forward and the Robins survived another scare when keeper Ross Turner dropped the ball.

Manager Phil Stant tried to pep up Ilkeston by introducing a double substitution with Justin Jenkins and Paul Eshelby replacing Ryan Hindley and Chris Adam. Four minutes later Steve Johnson also came on to replace Liam Walshe. The changes did not stop Willenhall enjoying the majority of the possession and on 65 minutes they came close after an excellent passing move but the resulting header was just over the bar.

The impressive Paul Smith had a shot well saved after 68 minutes but the match officials again stole the show by dismissing the Willenhall Town manager from the bench. The visitors the started to lose a bit of discipline and Nigel Jemson in particular was the target of some very heavy tackles.

As time started to run out for the visitors Ilkeston had three good chances to increase their lead. Paul Eshelby fed Justin Jenkins but he shot well over from eight yards out and then Nigel Jemson was put in by Justin Jenkins but he too shot over. In the dying seconds Paul Smith was put clear but although his shot beat the keeper it also beat the right hand post.