Whitby go 1-0 up from the spot	Jemson gets stuck in

Ilkeston Town made the long journey north to Whitby for their first ever game against the Unibond League Premier Division promotion hopefuls. Manager Phil Stant had the luxury of picking the same team that won impressively at Warrington last week. That meant there was no place for top scorer Ryan Hindley back after his dramatic vacation in the far east.

The Robins made the worst possible start to the game when Mark Clifford was judged to have handled in the box after only two minutes. David McTiernan stepped up and confidently stroked the ball past Ross Turner. Ilkeston's response to this setback was impressive and within four minutes they had equalised when Nigel Jemson's clever header set up David Jervis to score with a sweet volley.

Whitby however were not willing to sit back and let the Robins take control of the game and they dominated much of the first half forcing Ross Turner into making a number of fine saves. After 30 minutes they eventually broke the Robins rearguard when Steve Johnson raced clear and confidently slotted the ball past Turner. Whitby then proceeded to miss some very good chances and had to be content with a slender 2-1 lead at half time.

After the break Ilkeston had their best spell of the game and forced Whitby back into their own half. Unfortunately their efforts to get back into the game were hampered by a number of bad tempered flare ups. Jemson was booked after 53 minutes and then two Whitby players were booked in quick succession. In between the behavioral problems Jemson got in a good header at goal. On 57 minutes Stuart Copnell was booked for an over enthusiastic challenge and then Gareth Homes was unfortunately booked after being on the end of some very ugly challenges.

Whitby weathered the Ilkeston pressure and came back into the game strongly and should have done better with two chances from headers. Ilkeston's hopes of getting anything out of the game almost completely disappeared after 74 minutes when Liam Walshe was sent off. Referee Mr Salt who had little control over proceedings was unable to get the Whitby back ten yards at a free kick. To stop them encroaching Walshe stood in front of the wall. He appeared to have been pushed in the back but retaliated with his elbow. McTiernan went down dramatically and Walsh was shown the red card. The travelling Ilkeston support were livid at the perceived injustice and it looked for a while that the game might turn very ugly.

Whitby calmed things down however with ten minutes to go when the unpopular McTiernan got on the end of a low right wing cross to give the home side an unassailable two goal lead.

WhiteBallProject Man of the Match - Gareth Holmes (pictured below) – Fought and battled the whole game and was the subject of some very special attention from the Whitby players.