Ground: 136
Date: Saturday 26th March 2022
Ilkeston Town 1-0 Yaxley
Northern Premier League Division 1 Midlands
Attendance: 965 (official)
Ilkeston Town - History
The current incarnation of Ilkeston Town were founded in 2017 after the demise of Ilkeston FC (themselves founded in 2010 after the demise of the previous Ilkeston Town). They were placed in Division 1 of the Midland League and finished 2nd in their first season to earn promotion to the Premier Division for the 2018/19 season. They won the Premier Division title in their first season to earn promotion to Step 4, a level they have remained at ever since.
In the club's three seasons in the FA Cup, their best run saw them reach the 4th Qualifying Round in the 2020/21 season: they beat Shepshed Dynamo, Coventry Sphinx, Hanley Town and Alvechurch before losing to Hartlepool United. They have reached the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy twice in their three seasons in the competition, most recently this season when they beat Daventry Town on penalties before losing to Bromsgrove Sporting.
As for the FA Vase, the club's one season in the competition (the 2018/19 season) saw them reach the 3rd Round by beating Gedling Miners Welfare, Graham Street Prims, Heanor Town and Wolverhampton Sporting Community before losing to Eastwood Community.
My Visit
This was another ground I had intended to visit ever since Yaxley were placed in the same league, due to its close proximity to the nearby train station. As the season has progressed and it has begun to look more and more likely that Ilkeston will be promoted, my desire to visit with Yaxley has only increased (as, being a 3/4G pitch, it would likely fall way down my priority list if they were promoted).
When we visited Belper Town back in February, the possibility of us taking a coach to Ilkeston as well was mooted and, had that happened, it would have made for an easy journey. In the end, though, that didn't happen and I instead asked Chris for a lift after initially considering taking the train to Ilkeston instead.
After looking into Ilkeston's club history on Friday, I left the house at around 11:20am yesterday to walk the two miles from my house to the shops in Yaxley, where I would be getting picked up. It was a very nice walk on such a warm and sunny day and I ended up arriving at the shops just before 12pm and getting picked up not long after.
From there, it was a fairly straightforward journey towards Ilkeston until the satnav took us through the centre of Nottingham. This meant that we arrived at the ground closer to 2pm rather than at around 1:30pm as planned. After heading into the ground and getting a couple of photos, we headed into the boardroom and received a warm welcome, with tea and biscuits on offer.
We stayed in the boardroom for a while, but I eventually headed out to do my usual circuit of photos at around 2:30pm. After that was done, I joined the rest of our committee and club officials in the black seats between the two dugouts for the first half, returning to those seats in the second half after heading back to the boardroom at half-time for some chips and a sausage sandwich.
With recent results in mind, I fully expected Ilkeston to thrash us, even if we had given them a good game in the reverse fixture (losing 0-1 by conceding deep into stoppage time). At the very least, I was hoping we wouldn't embarrass ourselves as we have done a few times on the road this season.
From the start, it was clear that Yaxley came into this game with a specific gameplan: defend deep to frustrate Ilkeston, then try to hit them on the counter and nick something if possible. This restricted Ilkeston to a few efforts from range - such as Montel Gibson hitting a volley just over the bar in the 6th minute - as they tried to break through a deep-lying Yaxley defence. At the other end, Yaxley's best chance of the half came shortly before half-time as Dan Cotton tried his luck from range.
On the stroke of half-time, Yaxley were reduced to ten men as Josh Moreman was sent off for a reckless two-footed challenge just outside the Ilkeston box. This saw Ilkeston up the pressure considerably in the second half, forcing Yaxley to dig deep to defend against wave after wave after wave of attacks; young goalkeeper Will Lakin was called into action on several occasions to keep Ilkeston at bay.
Eventually, as happened in the reverse fixture, Yaxley's resistance was broken in stoppage time: in the 91st minute, Remaye Campbell headed home from close range to give Ilkeston the lead. Yaxley went straight on the attack in search of an equaliser and earned a corner, but Dan Bucciero's header from the corner was easily saved by Ilkeston keeper Saul Deeney.
In many ways, this match ended up being remarkably similar to the reverse fixture back in November: Ilkeston were on top, but we defended well and so nearly held out for a goalless draw, only to end up conceding in stoppage time to suffer a narrow defeat. It's frustrating that we couldn't hold on, but at the same time I can't really complain about the result. Who knows how differently the second half would have played out if Josh Moreman hadn't got himself needlessly sent off, though.
When the full-time whistle blew just after 5pm (due to seven minutes of stoppage time in the second half), we made a quick exit to the car park and started straight on the journey back home. This time, we used Steven's phone rather than the car's sat-nav to direct us, hence avoiding another awkward journey through the centre of Nottingham. This made for a much smoother journey home and I was dropped off at Tesco at around 6:35pm after paying fuel money for the trip. Fifteen minutes later, I was back in the house and sorted out my photos, wrote my match report and had a shower while waiting for dinner.
I currently have plans for four more groundhops before the end of the season, but the next of those is three weeks away when Yaxley visit Daventry Town on the 16th of April. I'll then head to our away game at Sutton Coldfield Town on the 23rd followed by two more neutral groundhops on the following two weekends. I may also go for one more in mid-May, but we'll see closer to the time.
The Ground
Courtesy of its previous usage at higher levels, New Manor Ground is one of the better Step 4 grounds I have visited so far. There are two seated stands on the near side, with one having seats at pitch level and the other having elevated seats. The pitch-level stand contains three separate areas of seating for spectators, split up by the two dugouts also in the stand. The elevated stand is the ground's more interesting feature and is positioned in the far corner, with a clock tower positioned directly next to the stand.
There is covered standing behind each goal, with the cover behind the near goal extending most of the length of the pitch. The covered terrace behind the far goal is a more substantial structure, extending the entire length of the pitch and containing four steps of terracing with crush barriers.
The far side is exclusively open hard standing and contains the bar and boardroom buildings. Overall, the ground has an official capacity of 3,029 and is probably good enough for as high as Step 2 in its current form.
Photos
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