Ilkeston Fc 0 - 2 Stafford Rangers

After a four week break Dudsey was hoping for a bit of a football feast today, it`s tenth spot taking on twelfth in the Evo-Stik Premier Division.

It`s a truly freezing February afternoon but there`s a good crowd to take in today`s game at 'The New Manor Ground'.

Kevin Wilson has strengthened the squad with the recent arrival of the highly experienced ex-Blade Robert Kozluk who is sponsored by his ex Bramhall Lane colleagues...Phil Jagielka, Michael Tonge and Michael Brown. Two more fresh faces in camp come in the form of Kieron O`Connell and Cameron Darkwah, who are both on the bench.

Stafford Rangers` squad has only two members of which Dudsey has any knowledge of, the first being Karl Ashton who joined from Mickleover Sports and Christian Dacres who had impressed me so much whilst he was skipper at Rushall Olympic.

The visitors get the game rolling, but it`s the home-side who seem to pose the biggest threat, Rickett`s should have done better, heading the ball over the bar from Jack Watts` perfectly weighted cross. Stafford have the odd break but nothing too intrusive with Ashton being the 'Target Man'. The game seems to be all speed with no quality football on show, it needs to settle down a bit for me.!!

Eventually the pace comes down with Jack Watts and Kozluk providing the main route in for Ilkeston down the right-flank, the visitors seem content to take their chances as they arrive with George, Brown, Walshe and Bolton looking very compact in the defence.

Adam Alcock fnds himself the busier of the two keepers

Ilkeston continue to push but Rickett`s, Matt Richards and Aaron Hooton look out of sorts in front of goal, Richards for me was probably 'Ilson`s best mid-fielder but since Daryl Thomas departed he increasingly finds himself thrown up-front. The game flows well but the mid-field is baron of any real quality passes from either side.

Just as the first half looked as though it was about to finish goal-less, Stafford make a break and Danny Quinn (who looked to be a shade off-side at the time of receiving the ball) tee`s one up for Ashton, he pulls the trigger just sneaking it beyond Chris Martin off the right-hand stick. 0-1 with five minutes to go, and that`s how the first half finished.

Stafford celebrate their opening goal

It`s time to wrap my hand`s around a hot drink after I eventually manage to fasten the buttons back up on my jeans, Dudsey`s fingers are blue with the cold and the warm air hand-drier in the toilets sure as hell was a saviour.

In an attempt to address the deficit, Wilson brings on two subs for the second half but it`s not falling for 'The Robins' although they still continue to have the lions share of possession. Stafford remain solid in defence and are doing a good job in keeping Ilkeston`s advances at bay.

Tight defending saves the day for Rangers

Stafford continue to sit back and await their chances, if anything they seem far happier to focus their attentions on time wasting which you`d expect in the dying minutes, but not twenty minutes into the second half. It`s stop-start all the way as Stafford try to stifle the flow of play in the second half but the officials seem quite happy and let them get away with it.

The desire to square the game is the failure of the home-side as the visitors break from a sloppy pass and being left open at the back they head rapidly down into Ilkeston`s area, winning themselves a corner. Fabrice Kasiama lofts in a decent ball and Liam Walshe is at hand to nod it into the Clock Tower goal on seventy minutes. 0-2 and it`s all to do for Ilkeston.

Ilkeston push on to no avail

The Robins throw the Kitchen Sink at it for the last twenty minutes but the solidarity of 'The Rangers' defence remains intact although the home-side do come very close in the final minutes but the clock is beating them and it finishes at 0-2.

Not an epic by any stretch of the imagination especially for a neutral. On the face of it Ilkeston will probably consider themselves unfortunate not to have gotten something out of a game in which they enjoyed so much of the ball but Stafford came with a plan, to sit deep allowing 'The Robins' to expose themselves. They stuck to it, it worked and they took the honours.

Nice to hear the final whistle sound in daylight..!!

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Starting Line-ups - Ilkeston : Martin, Kozluk, Wholey, L Wilson, Maguire, Maduako, Watts, R Wilson, Ricketts (c), Hooton, Richards.


Stafford: Alcock, George, Brown, Walshe, Bolton, Dacres, Heler, Downes (c), Ashton, Quinn, Kasiama.


Attendance - 515


Admission £9