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Reports from Worcester itself suggest that Leon Kelly has signed for Worcester City for an undiscosed four figure fee. Obviously the loss of last seasons top goalscorer and Supporters Player of the Year is a blow but it will free up precious cash to sign players who can do a job for Ilkeston Town in the Dr Martens Western Division. All at WhiteBallProject wish Leon all the best he was one of the most honest players we have seen at the New Manor Ground.
L = League record only
Notts County are to send a very strong squad to play Ilkeston Town on Saturday. The full squad is: Garden, Fenton, Barraclough, Jenkins, Barras, Richardson, Platt, Caskey, Stallard, Heffernan and Nicholson Subs Boland, Brough, Baldry, Hackworth, Riley and Deeney. Ilkeston Town have also announced the following friendlies:-
Please note kick off times are guesswork.
Ilkeston Town started the season with a narrow 1-0 defeat against a strong Worksop Town side. Manager Charlie Bishop will be pleased with the performances of regulars Barry Woolley and Leon Kelly but will be impressed with debutants Craig Swinscoe and James Fox. Ex Robin Tony Hemmings has joined Alfreton Town and Leighton James has for the second time been sacked as manager of Llanelli.
Ilkeston Town have been drawn away to Rocester in Preliminary Round of the FA Cup on Saturday 30th August. The Staffordshire side were relegated from the Dr Martens League Western Division last season and will be keen to show that they were too good to go down. If we overcome The Romans we will be rewarded with another away tie on Saturday 13th September against the winners of Norton United (Scott Dundas used to play for them) and local rivals Long Eaton United. In the FA Trophy Ilkeston start out in the Preliminary Round with an attractive home tie against Bridlington Town. Brid were a major non league force not too many years ago but disbanded because of financial problems. However they reformed and have worked there way back up through the local leagues. The reward for beating Bridlington will be an way tie at either Rosendale United or Colwyn Bay. In the Dr Martens League Cup Ilkeston will play Rugby United.
Another poorly kept secret was confirmed when Ilkeston Town Football Club confirmed that Paul Millership had stepped as Chairman. The press statement revealed that Dave Pullan had also relinquished his post as Managing Director. Unfortunately it failed to state who was the new chairman and left several important questions unanswered. Whether the boardroom changes herald a new start for Ilkeston Town Football Club or the start of the end depends on your interpretation of the press release. The WhiteBallProject will endeavour to clarify the position in the next few days. Post your views and unanswered questions on the forum and we will do our best to get an answer.
Ilkeston Town have confirmed the following fixtures as they warm up for the new Dr Martens League Western Division campaign.
Other fixtures may be arranged and a game at home to Keith Alexander's Lincoln City on Saturday August 2nd is still to be confirmed.
June has nearly passed us by and information from Ilkeston Town Football Club is a sparse commodity. The only certainties are that Ilkeston Town do have some freindlies lined up and hopefully an accurate list will be available tomorrow night. Who runs the club and who works for the club is still in some doubt but a meeting has been arranged for Tuesday night which should give a clearer picture of what is happening. Ilkeston do not appear to have signed any new players for next season and with rumours that the wage bill is already over budget it will be interesting to see who is at training on Thursday night as the players start their preparation for life in the Dr Martens League Western Division. Whatever happens this week it is clear that Ilkeston Town Football Club are entering a new era and things are going to be very different!! Phil Towle has joined the club as Reserve Team Manager. Phil played for Ilkeston in the early nineties but made his name playing for Hucknall Town. Last year he was manager of the successful Hucknall Rolls Royce side.
One of the worst kept secrets at Ilkeston Town was confirmed today when Alfreton Town announced that they had signed Ian Robinson and Emeka Nwadike. Both players were out of contract and will have joined the newly promoted North Street club on free transfers. It had been known for a long time that Robinson had agreed to join Alfreton despite his clubhouse plegdes that he wanted to stay at the New Manor Ground. Nwadike on the other hand had been out of the picture at Ilkeston after joining Hednesford on a loan deal for the last few months of the season.
After a month's break the WhiteBallProject is ready to roll back into action. An overview of where Ilkeston Town Football Club are at the moment must include a brief review of last season.
From what the WhiteBallProject can gather there has not been as much change as expected. Paul Millership is still chairman and Charlie Bishop and Carl Heggs are still the management. The major difference will be the budget particularly the wages budget which appears to have been drastically cut. It is thought that it costs approximately £500,000 a year to keep the club afloat. The club raise about £200,000 a year themselves leaving the Chairman to find the rest. It is the shortfall that the club are having to address so I would presume that the wage bill has probably been cut in half at least. This brings us on to the players for next season.
Those
players that have definitely left are Tony Hemmings, Mat
McKenzie and Aaron O'Connor. Hemmings disappointed
after a promising start and then looked totally disinterested. Mat
McKenzie cannot be guaranteed to play more than twenty games a
season because of injury and finally saddest of all is Aaron
O'Connor. Aaron has the potential to play League football but does
not seem to possess the attitude required. He did not turn up for a
number of away games because he did not like being out too late on a
Saturday. His career ended the same way his breif spell at Scunthorpe
with him being shown the door. I hope there is a club out there who can
persuade Aaron how good he is and what a talent he is wasting.
So there you have it and most of it unofficial!!! Hopefully in the next few days there will be an official list of friendly fixtures and maybe some more concrete news about players.
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Basically
we took the lead against Bath City through Mark Walters and then
the season started to go downhill from there on. Bath equalised (see
left for picture) and then we were outclassed by Stafford Rangers. This
feat was repeated by all but Folkestone Invicta. John McGinlay
was shown the door after an embarrassing display at Hednesford and to
everybody's surprise Charlie Bishop was appointed as the man to
salvage the season. Results improved for a short time but the heavy
defeats continued as John Knapper came and went within four days.
Carl Heggs was then appointed Assistant Manager/Player but
Ilkeston's slide towards relegation continued unabated. Charlie
Bishop's reign as manager looked like it was going as brief as John
McGinlay after heavy defeats against fellow strugglers Hinckley
United, Halesowen Town, Welling United and Moor Green. Gradually
however the team started to gel with Mark Lever and Barry
Woolley forming an effective partnership in defence and Aaron
O'Connor providing a breath of fresh air upfront but it was too
little too late to save the Robins from relegation
The
strong end to the season has given fans hope that Ilkeston can bounce
straight back and win the Dr Martens League Western Division at a
canter. The reality is that preparations for the new season are taking
place against a backdrop of uncertainty. As is usual with Ilkeston Town
nobody really seems to know what is going on. There has been some doubt
for a long while whether Paul Millership (pictured right)
would be still willing to pour hundreds of thousands of pounds of his
own money into a club which appears to be failing. There was talk of a
new Chairman and of new directors with new money. There was also much
talk of Paul taking over Notts County and abandoning Ilkeston Town
altogether.
Charlie
Bishop would no doubt love to keep the bulk of the squad who played
so well at the end of last season. Leon Kelly (pictured left)
and Barry Woolley are under contract and should stay although
Lincoln City are supposed to be interested in Kelly despite the denials
of Keith Alexander and a mystery club are supposed to be trailing
Barry Woolley. Carl Heggs is under contract but there are
doubts about his fitness. There have been reports that Joe Atkinson
is now under contract.
The
next batch are those that Charlie must be hoping will accept
reduced terms to play for Ilkeston Town next season. Mark Lever, Andy
Love, Steve Coates, Chris Freestone and Ian Robinson (picture
left) all have expressed a wish to stay. Some cynics will say that
the more Ian Robinson says he is going to stay the more likely it
is that he will be playing for Alfreton Town next season. It is rumoured
that Robbo wants more money but under the present climate I think
he may need to be more realistic if he really really wants to play for
Ilkeston Town. Of the others some the younger players will hopefully
stay on like Ashley Murdock and Jason Westwood but Niall
Hudson is looking to return to his home town Dublin and Ryan Ford
has retired.