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Tuesday 5th September - Frickley Athletic 0-2 Ilkeston Town

The Blues suffered their second successive home defeat as they went down 2-0 to Ilkeston Town this evening. Calum Selby replaced the injured Dean Jones in the centre of the defence with Lee Pugh being available to play and replacing Mark Crossfield.

The Blues gave a largely laboured first half performance which rarely troubled visiting 'keeper Ben Scott whilst Ilkeston looked much more dangerous and took the lead through a terrific 25 yard shot from Justin Walker on 33 minutes. 

The second half saw the Blues play with more purpose but they struggled to make any real impression on a resolute Ilkeston defence. However, just after the hour a great ball from Lee Stratford saw Mark Ward burst clear only for him to be fouled by Rick Brewer as he reached the edge of the box. Ward did well to stay on his feet and managed to get a shot in which Scott saved but the referee pulled play back and awarded the Blues a free-kick on the very edge of the box and then bazzarly sent off Walker instead of Brewer. Unfortunately Alex Callery's free-kick struck the wall and rebounded to safety.  This signalled a prolonged spell of Blues' pressure but no clear chances were created. Then, the inevitable happened with 11 minutes to go as Adam Muller sealed the win on the break.