Ilkeston Town 3 (2) Bromsgrove Sporting 1 (1) at The Microlise New Manor Ground
Report: Shaunna-Grace Murphy.
With Mike McGrath's first game in charge as player/manager and Mikey Taylor pulling on a Sporting shirt for his 50th appearance, there was a keen anticipation at the start of this match against Ilkeston Town at their delightful stadium in South-East Derbyshire.
Playing in warm sunshine on a pleasant autumn afternoon, the travelling Bromsgrove fans nearly had something to celebrate as early as the fourth minute when Taylor sent a great pass in from the left to Callum King-Harmes who was unlucky to see his resultant header go wide of the post.
That move acted as something of an incentive to the home side to get moving and in the next few minutes they tested the Sporting defence with Lewis Wright making a last-ditch tackle on the lively Ilkeston winger, Reece Fyfe then Declan Eratt-Thompson putting a cross into the box but none of his team mates were able to make the tap-in.
However The Robins determination paid off on the 15th minute. Following a corner, Liam Armstrong parried from Babatomiwa Solanke's drive but the Sporting 'keeper was unable to do much with the rebound from striker Christopher O'Grady who fired into the middle of the net.
A few minutes later, Ilkeston could have increased their lead when one shot hit the post and bounced harmlessly back into play then another effort was scrambled off the Bromsgrove line.
However, after a period of domination by the home side, Sporting came more into the game. Wright had a decent shot saved by Robins' 'keeper Oliver Battersby but he was beaten on the 24th minute as Taylor headed home from Ryan Edmunds' inch-perfect cross to even up the scoreline.
Five minutes before the interval though, Ilkeston regained their lead as O'Grady latched on to Jack Thomas's pass from the right placing a low shot between the post and the diving Armstrong.
The second half saw Sporting try to get back into the match but the home side appeared to be comfortable defending their lead giving their opponents few opportunities and relying on quick breaks to mount any further attacks. Of these one proved to be successful with just three minutes of normal time to go when substitute Remaye Campbell found himself with just Armstrong to beat and carefully slid the ball into the net for his team's third goal.
There was little time left for Sporting to reduce the deficit let alone attempt to gain a point and so the scoreline remained. Across the match an improved performance after the previous week's 7-1 home defeat that saw the departure of manager Thomas Baillie but with a good squad of players available, improved results should not be far away.
Sporting line-up: Liam Armstrong, Lewis Wright, Ammar Dyer, Joe Curtis, Tom Taylor (Capt), Mike McGrath, Callum King-Harmes, George Forsyth, Zidan Sutherland (Miro Pais 66 mins), Mikey Taylor, Ryan Edmunds (Kieron Dawes 80 mins).
Unused substitutes: Dan Sweeney, Dom Perkins, Jack Newell.
Scorer: Mikey Taylor (25 mins)
Crowd: 704
Weather: Warm, sunny.
