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Ilkeston Line up:-
Marc Laws prepared for this game fully expecting to be suspended but fortunately for Ilkeston his suspension has not yet come into force and the young midfielder an inspired performance to earn Ilkeston Town an away tie with local rivals Long Eaton United who beat Norton United 2-0. Manager Charlie Bishop welcomed back flu sufferer Mark Lever but otherwise kept the same team that snatched a draw at Rocester on Saturday. Like Saturday the Robins started the game in tremendous fashion and on four minutes Marc Laws ran at the Rocester defence and beat a number of players before coolly slotting the ball past Richard Froggatt to score an excellent solo goal. Again like Saturday Rocester got back into the game and after 12 minutes Paul McMahon scored with a close range header from a corner after being left completely unmarked. The equaliser was nothing less than the visitors deserved as they had a number of good chances earlier. Ilkeston took a while to settle but on minutes Marc Laws came very close with a free kick after Mark Levers had been fouled. Three minutes later Chris Thomson and Chris Freestone both had goal bound efforts cleared off the line from a Fabian Smith corner. However on 35 minutes referee Mitchell made one of the most bizarre decisions seen at the New Manor Ground. Fabian Smith appeared to obstruct a Rocester defender at least two yards inside the visitors penalty area. To everyone's surprise the referee whistled for a foul on Smith and then proceeded to point not to the penalty spot but to a spot at least three yards away from the incident. After the break Ilkeston started to gain the upper hand with Laws pulling the strings in midfield and Mark Levers and Danny Holyoak dominant at the back and after 50 minutes they took the lead when Alex Callery's corner was flicked on for Chris Thompson to direct the ball past a startled Rocester keeper. Ilkeston almost added to their lead when Laws fed Smith whose shot was blocked by the keeper. Rocester however are not a team to lie down and die and gradually they forced their way back into the game once more and it took a fine save by Andy Love and last ditch tackles by Danny Holyoak and Joe Atkinson to keep them at bay. In the dying minutes with the visitors pushing forward Marc Laws capped an impressive performance by taking on the Rocester defence once more and pulling the ball back for Chris Thompson whose shot was only parried by Froggat allowing Chris Freestone to bury the rebound to put the game beyond doubt. WhiteBallProject Man of the Match Marc Laws What a performance, scored one made one and a creative force the whole game. More of the same every week Marc please!!
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