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Martens League Cup
First Round
Rugby
United 2
Ilkeston Town 1
United were rarely troubled in a match played in atrocious
weather conditions, though despite these conditions
they still managed to show glimpses themselves of the
dominant, free flowing home form which was a feature
of last season's campaign.
United took the lead with the first proper attack of
the game on 14 minutes, when Dave Pearson chased down
a seemingly lost cause, beating Ilkeston keeper Darren
Horrigan to the ball. With Horrigan now out of
position, Pearson's well delivered cross found the unmarked
Jamie Williams - who powered home a left footed
shot low into the net.
Rugby continued to press, and further long range efforts
from Williams and Aaron Shanahan, and a dangerous cross
from Gary Moran - which swirled in the strong wind,
and nearly caught Horrigan by surprise, followed shortly
after.
On 33 minutes however a clever run into the box from
Ilkeston winger Chris Thompson - who was Town's only
real threat on the night - was halted by a late challenge
from Craig Herbert, and United stand-in keeper Paul
Shepherd's first job of the game was to pick the resulting
penalty from Paul Hurrell out of his net.
The goal temporarily knocked the stuffing out of United,
and a couple of further half chances fell to Town's
Thompson - neither of which were on target. As
the first half drew to a close, United regained the
initiative though. Pearson screwed his shot wide
after he had managed to break free from his marker,
Danny Nelson - on his full first team debut - shot waywardly
first time, when he could have gone on further, and
a rare attacking foray from Adam Hart on the stroke
of half time saw his dangerous header glance just past
the upright from a Shanahan corner.
The arrival of the players for the second half was greeted
with a further torrential downpour, and the driving
rain meant good football was always going to be at a
premium in such difficult conditions. The pitch
was by now particularly greasy on the surface, and both
Hurrell and Michael Hegarty quickly took advantage of
this with long range skidders, which required careful
goalkeeping at both ends.
Once more it was United in the ascendance, and it wasn't
long before they regained the lead. On 57 minutes
Shanahan broke on the right hand side, his deflected
cross found Nathan Thompson in a dangerous position
in the box, and his shot also took a slight deflection
on its way into the Ilkeston net.
Whilst United took their foot off the gas at this point,
they still continued to control the game from the middle
of the park. The precautionary substitutions of
Hart and Herbert had meant a re-organisation of the
team's back line, and the resulting - and highly unfamiliar
- defensive trio of Danny Hall, Rory Squire and Williams
coped comfortably with any threat from the Ilkeston
strikeforce. Squire was particular effective in
this role, winning a number of crucial challenges. Keeper
Shepherd limped out of the game on 67 minutes to further
add to manager Tony Dobson's injury woes.
Nathan Thompson provided the best outlet for United's
attacking play in the last quarter of the match, and
on two separate occasions his low and hard crosses only
marginally eluded their targets. In probably his
best performance for the club yet, Shanahan looked sharp
in the middle of the park, Pearson was always a threat
when he ran with the ball at the llkeston defence, and
Nelson definitely didn't look out of place making the
step up from reserve team football.
The relief of the crowd and the players was evident
when the referee's whistle signalled the end of proceedings.
On such a miserable night weatherwise, even the
defeated Ilkeston players had seemed unwilling to take
the game into extra time.
Rugby United :
Shepherd (Thomas 67), Moran, Nathan Thompson, Hart (McGowan
48), Herbert (Squire 61), Hegarty, Hall, Shanahan, Nelson,
Pearson, Williams
Subs not used : Dutton, Beard
Goals : Williams 14, Thompson 57
Booking : Herbert 37
Ilkeston Town :
Horrigan, Swinscoe, Atkinson, Coulson, Holyoak, Coates,
Myers (Smith 66), Reed (Stephens 53), Hurrell, Laws,
Chris Thompson
Sub not used : Hatton, Brown, Hurst
Goal : Hurrell, pen 34
Ref : Mr.J.Hubbard (Leicester)
Attendance : 195
Raffle : £30, Ray Leeson
Rugby United Supporters Man of the Match : Gary
Moran
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