Ilkeston Town travelled to second from bottom Rossendale United without the injured Gareth Holmes and Mark Clifford. Therefore Stuart Copnell (pictured left) and new signing Pat Lyons filled in in midfield.

Ilkeston started brightly and Copnell had a good shot just wide early on. Shortly afterwards the home side also came close with Robert Jones shooting narrowly wide. Lindsay the Rossendale keeper then made a good save from Mick Goddard and then denied Steve Chettle from the resulting corner.

Copnell who was having an impressive start to the game forced two fine saves from Lindsay. The busy keeper then kept Rossendale in the game with impressive saves from Goddard and Liam Walshe just before the break.

After the interval  Ilkeston still had the better chances but were not completely dominating a plucky home side. Lyons shot over the bar before Wilkinson came close for the home side.

Ilkeston then started to get on top and had numerous chances to open the scoring. Goddard shot just wide and then Copnell hit the post with Lyons seeing his effort from the rebound saved by Lindsay. In the resulting scramble Goddard had a shot cleared off the line. Chettle then hit the bar with a powerful header and Ryan Hindley forced another tremendous save from Lindsay.

With three minutes remaining the inevitable happened and Rossendale broke away and scored an excellent goal with Dean Cooper volleying home from Tulloch's cross. The strike earned Rossendale a well earned three points and left Ilkeston again ruing missed chances.

WhiteBallProject Man of the Match - Steve Chettle  (pictured below) – Excellent at the back and could have been on the scoresheet. Just pipped the impressive Stuart Copnell.

The team will have to examine what went wrong against Rossendale and aim to put it right. Rumours abound that players are on the verge of leaving the club. It could be said that if any players are not up to the fight then they should leave but in reality Ilkeston do not want to be losing players at this stage of the season will still everything to play for.

The Robins could bounce back and after a couple of wins be in an automatic promotion spot and this has got to be better than facing Gresley Rovers, AFC Telford and Kendal Town in the play offs because all three of these teams have beat us comfortably this season.

On Good Friday Ilkeston are at home top Spalding United and it is a time for the Ilkeston fans to show that they can lift the team and help get the promotion push back on course. We must keep the faith!!