The Bulls picked up a hard earned and very creditable point up at Spennymoor on Saturday, but all eyes are now focused on the FA Cup with a home tie against Ilkeston Town at Edgar Street this weekend.
What initially sounded like a reasonable home cup draw has taken on new concerning overtones. Ilkeston are a decent step 3 side, who recently ended Macclesfield’s 100% record, and whipped Whitby Town 5-1 on Saturday. Our previous visitors Radcliffe and Needham Market were, until very recently, also decent step 3 outfits. We’ve found such opposition rather challenging of late, so this tie will be another chance to demonstrate improvement.
Ilkeston are a Phoenix club, starting life in 2017 in Step 6. The Robins currently lie just outside the Play-offs in the Northern Premier League, their average gates are over 700, just slightly short of being Derbyshire’s best supported non-league club (that’s Buxton’s crown by the way). Edgar Street being a novelty venue for their fans, there’s likely to be a decent number of travelling supporters making the two-and-a-half hours trip, and they’ll no doubt create some noise from Block D of the Merton Stand.
The club became solely owned in April this year when co-owner David Hilton left to take over Scunthorpe (a move which didn’t go well). Indeed, Hilton is now believed to be “the new significant investor” at Matlock Town. Ilkeston say they have turned down bids for goalkeeper Matt Yates and leading scorer Tom Cursons this week, whilst Hereford accepted a bid from Matlock for Montel Gibson. Gibson left Stourbridge to join Ilkeston a few years ago. The circle of football continues!
Ilkeston still demonstrate some ambitions of rising higher, and manager Ian Deakin, unusually a former goalkeeper, has four assistants while the media team is also four people strong.
The club is not short of goal scorers. Alex Marshall has 48 in 75 games (though has missed several games this season), Jamie Walker 62 in 150 appearances, while most alarmingly Tom Cursons has 8 goals in 8 games in 2024/25. Just 22, he’s a sports coach and a university student by day. One familiar ex-Bull in their ranks is goalkeeper Matt Yates. Away from their 4G pitch, the Robins have had a mixed bag of results.
While being a welcome diversion from the League, the FA Cup is written into the walls of Edgar Street and more prosaically, it’s another way of boosting our income. That’s both through the gates and via prize money. There’s £3,500 for the winners with the expectation that part of the income will boost our playing budget.
Surely it would be rude not to take full advantage of our ninth straight home draw in all cup competitions. Make sure you get to Edgar Street, or listen in to full match commentary from the Radio Hereford FC team.
Ilkeston Town (ticketco.events)
Simon Wright
