| • Issue 2 | • Alloa Derby Special | • February 16th | RAVE ON LINE | The Independant Online Football Fanzine of Stirling Albion F.C. |
Ilkeston Town Review by Craig Lamont |
| | Ilkeston Town are currently second in the Unibond Division One, and for the past ten years have been playing in the southern leagues, but after the whole of the non-league was restructured at the end of last season, they have been moved into the northern league. Craig's connection with Stirling Albion came after a group of Ilkeston Town fans came up for a Stranraer versus Stirling Albion game during season 2003/04. To visit the Ilkeston Town website click on the link below. | |
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| The first day of the season was a hot sunny day &, we were at home to woodley sports. Most people were asking, "who the fuck are woodley? this`ll be a piece of piss". We soon got an answer, they were the team that were beating us 2-0 at home on the opening day of the season. Cheeky bastards!! We pulled a goal back just before half time, then, with 25 minutes left, we equalised. Then on 80 mins, liam walshe chipped the keeper from the edge of the penalty box & sealed the victory. All around the new manor ground, the old chant(which hadn`t been used for 3 years) "same old ilson, taking the piss" could be heard. We have never underestimated anyone again. That was the start of an 11 match unbeaten league run. | | Then came the match that all ilson fans love. GRESLEY ROVERS. During the restructuring, gresley, like us, had moved from the southern league into the northern league &, there has always been an intense rivalry, that, at times has bordered on hatred. Just 1 month earlier, they had beaten us 3-0 at home in the f.a. cup qualifiers & how they rubbed our noses in it. Now it was time for revenge!!! or not, as it turned out. The bastards beat us 1-0, on our ground as well. They`ve got some nerve. That was the start of a slump, that saw us take just 6 points from 18, but because we had had such a good start to the season, we only dropped to 3rd, a couple of points off the lead. Our league form has picked right back up & we are now in 2nd place, 3 points clear of 3rd, with the same amount of games played & 4 points behind 1st, with 2 games in hand. The top 2 go up automatically, with 3rd to 6th taking place in a play off for the final promotion spot. | | | This season has seen us have our best ever run in the league cup. the first 2 rounds were against teams lower than us (Spalding & Shepshed) both were uneventful night matches away from home, which resulted in 2-1 wins. Then in the 3rd round came our first real test. We were drawn away to unibond premier leaders, Workington town. They had a 7 point lead in the league & if we are honest, not many of us were expecting to get much out of the game. The coach, with 28 fans & the team left Ilkeston at 8.15a.m, with a 420 mile round trip ahead of us. We have been travelling with the team for 2 seasons now & usually the players keep to themselves on the way to matches, but for some reason there was a lot of banter between us, with a few card schools starting up as well. We stopped off at Kendal town F.C. (who are in our league) as our club had arranged for them to put on a lunch for us, they also opened the bar (fans only). As we left, one of them said, "watch out at Workington, they're a strange bunch." we smiled & said goodbye & thought no more of what they had said. We got to Workington at 2p.m, found the doors that said 'club house' & went through them, only for some bloke to shout, "you can't come in this fucking way, you idiots." & he then slammed the door on us. The words from Kendal suddenly reappeared in my mind. We eventually got into the ground & found the correct entrance to the club house, only to find that the bar was shut. Nobody seemed to know when it would open, the stewards were especially helpful, they just said "it should be open by now" then walking off, dragging his knuckles as he went. the club house was a complete shit hole, the doors were left wide open & there was no heating on, so it was freezing cold & damp & the wall paper was peeling off. When the bar finally opened, at 2.20p.m, i got myself a pint & nearly spat it back out, it still had cleaning fluid in it, from the pipes, i then noticed that all the Workington fans were drinking from cans. they obviously new something that we didn't. So there we were, in a clubhouse that was cold & damp, surrounded by people who didn't want us there & we're about to get knocked out of the cup. We were starting to wonder why we had gone. | | Onto the match & there we were, all 28 of us, huddled together behind the Workington goal. And from the second that our players took to the pitch, we started singing & didn't stop. On the pitch, ilson were putting in there best performance of the season, & when Nigel jemson gave us the lead just before half time, we erupted. That's when the chant of "premier league you're having a laugh" started. The second half started as the first finished, ilson playing good football & us singing our hearts out. we now really believed that we could win this. But then on 60 minutes, they equalised &, for a split second, we went quiet, only for us to start straight back up. We were rewarded 3 minutes later, when Steve Johnson put us back in front, we started to sing louder & with more enthusiasm than before (if that were possible). For the last 10 minutes, we were constantly under pressure & ilson 'keeper, Ross turner made some great saves & jemson cleared off the line. Then with 1 minute to go, the ball was finally hoofed out of defence & ilson striker, Stuart copnall picked the ball up just inside the Workington half, he beats one, he beats two, he shoots, the 'keeper saves it, bastard, copnalls got the rebound, he's scored, it's 3-1, we've beaten the premiership leaders 3-1. We sang louder, we forgot how cold it was, we even waved as the Workington fans started to leave & for the first time, we were in the quarter finals of the unibond cup. Nobody minded the 5 hour journey home, it was one big party on the coach, we were happy & drunk & the players were happy & getting drunk. We were drawn away at Whitby in the quarter finals, where we were beaten 3-1. as i write this, there should be a complaint going into the league about one of their people & I can't write about the game without mentioning the incident, so i'll have to tell you about it some other time.
Speak to you again, Craig (aka ZZ's Beard) |
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