2005/06 REVIEW to follow

2006/07 REVIEW to follow

2007/08 REVIEW to follow

2008/09 REVIEW to follow

2009/10 REVIEW
The euphoria Ilkeston Town supporters expeienced upon the club's promotion to the Blue Square North lasted barely a couple of weeks. Unwilling or unable to sign a new contract, depending on whose version of events you believe, successful management duo Rob Scott and Paul Hurst were allowed to walk out of the club. To make matters worse, many of the players who took the club to promotion left as well. To be fair to the club they could hardly stand in the way of Ben Pringle who left for Derby County, Chris Adamson who took up a player coach role at Hereford United, or Simon Weaver who moved into management. Whether or not some of the other players would have stayed had Scott and Hurst remained is a matter of conjecture.

To the club's credit a manager was quickly appointed. Kevin Wilson, a man with vast experience in management including in League football, became the man charged with trying to build a squad capable of holding their own at the highest level in the club's history. But almost immediately, if things weren't bad enough, the club's fortunes took a turn for the worse. It was revealed that owner Chek Whyte was on the brink of bankrupcy. Ilkeston Town's whole future was in doubt.

Cost cutting exercises were vital and the reserves team was disbanded. The decision to allow homeless Worksop Town play their home games at the New Manor Ground in 2009/10 also proved to be a very important piece of business for the club. Wilson, meanwhile, was working on the understanding that he would have one of the lowest playing budgets in the Blue Square North. Only strikers Amari Morgan-Smith and Jon Douglas, the talented left winger Sam Duncum, and central defender Kieran Murphy remained at the club. Wilson therefore had to build a new squad with precious little in the way of resources in a short space of time. Meanwhile, off the pitch, it later transpired that Chek Whyte had transferred the ownership of the club to a family member. But the whole affair of Whyte's ownership had been shrouded in mystery from the moment it was revealed that he was in severe financial difficulties.

With the start of the 2009/10 season approaching it would be fair to say that supporters main hope was that the club remained existence and even the most optimistic fan envisaged a fight against relegation. So what Kevin Wilson, and his team of players and staff, managed to achieve in 2009/10 was nothing short of incredible. Knowing that at the very least his team would have to be hard to beat he rebuilt the defence, choosing hungry, fit and courageous defenders. In goal came Dan Lowson. Lowson had a truly memorable season; not the tallest of 'keepers he nevertheless had a safe pair of hands but it was as a shot stopper that he truly excelled. Hardly a game went by, it seemed, without him making saves of extraordinary brilliance. Almost as soon as he entered the fray he went an incredible 608 minutes without conceding a goal, smashing a club record that had stood for 55 years. One of his clean sheets came against Farsley Celtic who were forced to disband in financial turmoil later in the season. Their results were expunged but Lowson's record deservedly was allowed to stand. His heroics during that spell earned him the Blue Square North player of the month for September and at the end of the season he scooped both the supporters and the players player of the year awards. His understudy, the tall David Coombes, spent most of the season on the bench but on the rare occasions he got a game he proved himself to be up to the task.

As a result Ilkeston's defensive record at the season's end was bettered by only two other clubs, but to hold Lowson as entirely responsible for that would be very misleading. Murphy, the captain, and new signing Charlie O'Loughlin immediately forged a good understanding at the heart of an Ilkeston defence that was miserly. Both were terrific in the air but an injury to Tom Bonner early in the season forced a reshuffle. Bonner, another new capture, was a tall right back whose long strides could take him up and down the pitch quickly and although his absence from the team was fairly brief, Wilson was forced to move Murphy into the vacant right back spot. O'Loughlin then had a new central defensive partner in Luke Waterfall as a result. Waterfall never looked back and he too had a season to remember, picking up the managers player of the year award at the end of the season. Dominant in the air he barely put a foot wrong all season. The final piece of Wilson's defensive jigsaw was left back Alex White whose assured early season displays brought him to the attention of several scouts.

Wilson also had to put together a new midfield, apart from the outside left position held by fans favourite Duncum. Central midfielders Dan Holmes and Paul Dempsey had more experience than the back four but not dramatically so. Dempsey was an aggressive customer who rarely allowed opponents time to dwell on the ball whilst Holmes proved to be a fine kicker of a dead ball whilst not being afraid to put his body on the line. Both liked to venture forward when they could but more importantly they provided an effective barrier in front of the defence. Liam Green was signed to give the new look midfield more width whilst teenager Josh Burge was keen to get the ball down and pass it. Burge's only drawback was his lack of experience and it showed at times but by the end of the season he could look back on it with some satisfaction.

Not that Wilson was looking to build a negative team. With Duncum able to tear down the left and provide ammunition for the strikers, and Morgan-Smith with his power and pace able to unsettle defences he signed veteran striker Gary Ricketts. Ricketts excelled at holding the ball up and used his experience well to bring others into play. An old fashioned type centre forward he received his fair of knocks and without doubt he was treated most harshly by referees during the season. Three times he received his marching orders, two of which were highly debatable, and several suspensions during the season deprived the team of his services. Yet most agreed Ricketts had been unlucky and without doubt his presence on the pitch was a huge bonus to the team. With a small squad Ricketts' absence was something that Wilson could ill afford, especially as Douglas left the club early in the season unable to claim a place in the starting line up. Fortunately he had also signed David Graham, a different sort of striker from Ricketts, but one who played with craft and guile gleaned from several years in League football.

The season began with an opening day defeat at Droylsden who were destined for the play offs but The Robins soon showed that they were more than capable of holding their own at this level. A 3-2 home win against eventual champions Southport showed they had nothing to fear and before long they found themselves in the top five. Not only that but they embarked on a fine run in the FA Cup that took them to the first round proper for the first time in nine years, beating Conference side Tamworth 2-0 to book themselves a tie at Cambridge United. Ilkeston emerged from Cambridge with a 4-0 defeat but gave a decent account of themselves before being outplayed in the last half hour. Although he did not appear that day from the bench Ilkeston supporters got their first glimpse of teenage striker Jack Watts. Watts was one for the future but he showed plenty of potential and a commendable attitude as he got more opportunities as the season wore on.

Yet in the Autumn Town suffered some serious setbacks that stretched Wilson's paper thin squad to its limits. He had already been active in bringing in loan signings from day one, and continued to do so throughout the season, but when Murphy suffered a fractured skull and White broke his foot it left the back four looking threadbare. Bonner moved over to take White's position on the left whilst Aaron Mitchell came on loan to play at right back. But as serious as White and Murphy's injuries were there was little doubt that they would return to the team by midwinter. Theirs was nothing compared to that suffered by Graham, a victim of a horror challenge at Blyth Sparans shortly after he scored in a 4-1 win, that broke his leg in two places. He failed to recover from his ordeal by the end of the season although it seemed that his injury was no longer career threatening.

And things got worse still. In December the country was hit by the longest prolonged spell of cold weather in almost thirty years that lasted some six weeks and caused numerous football matches to be postponed. Ilkeston were as badly hit as anyone and they were unable to stage a single home game between October 27th and January 31st. Money spinning home games over the Christmas period were postponed and to add insult to injury Town were hit by a hefty police bill when the Eastwood home game on Boxing Day was called off three and a half hours before kick off. With no gate income the financial situation became critical. Although Chek Whyte had avoided bankrupcy by entering into a CVA he was clearly not in a position to help. With great reluctance, just as the temperatures began to rise, the club was forced to sell its prized asset, Sam Duncum, to local rivals Eastwood Town for a fee believed to be well into five figures.

The club was also hit by another bombshell when it was revealed that they faced being demoted, regardless of their final league position, if they failed to carry out ground improvements by the end of May. The total cost was in excess of £50,000 but thankfully Chesterfield FC came to the rescue. The biggest chunk of the necessary expenditure was towards the upgrading of the floodlights, and Chesterfield kindly offered to donate their lights at the end of the season when they were due to leave their Saltergate home and move to a new ground.

Understandably, with the few games that the club had managed to play during the cold snap all being away from home, Town slid into a midtable position. But with the temperatures slowly beginning to rise Murphy and White regained fitness and returned to the side. White, it has to be said, was a shadow of his former self and was soon left out with Bonner moving into the left back slot opposite Murphy. Wilson, although frustrated at being unable to reinforce the team greatly because of the financial constraints, got on with his job with great integrity and at least was able to sign the tricky and skilful midfielder Jimmy Ghaichem. Ghaichem showed up well at times but was unable to hold down a regular starting place, however. The manager later turned to another midfielder, team coach Darren Caskey, who despite being clearly not match fit, rolled back the years in a series of substitute appearances. In his brief cameos his passing was a joy to watch and just as importantly his presence appeared to lift the team to greater heights.

As Ilkeston began to eat away at the backlog of home fixtures so the results began to improve, to such an extent that they became outsiders for a play offs spot. They embarked upon an excellent eight match unbeaten run and Wilson brought in a couple of new strikers during the closing weeks of the season. Nialle Rodney, quick and skilful and good in the air, came on loan whilst veteran striker Jason Lee arrived when Gary Ricketts was hit by another suspension. Successive home defeats against two teams destined for the play offs, Workington and Fleetwood Town, finally killed off the team's brave challenge, however. The season ended on a high note with an emphatic 3-0 win at Eastwood during the final week to complete the double over their local rivals and Town finished in a highly creditable eighth place, just three points adrift of Droylsden in fifth. There were many occasions during the season when that shortfall could have been made up. Town frequently controlled games but missed the chances that would have turned draws into wins, and at times they seemed to lack creativity in midfield. They also dropped five points against the two relegated clubs. But to be critical would be wrong. The team never allowed the turmoil behind the scenes to affect them, they forged a remarkable team spirit with a never say die attitude, and they quite simply over achieved. No wonder that Kevin Wilson was so proud of them and that the supporters were so appreciative of their efforts.

Shortly before the season ended Chek Whyte, after months of trying to sell the club - it is believed he turned away other interested parties who didn't match his criteria - finally got his wish. Gary Hodder became the new chairman and Kevin Wilson was given the green light to set up an academy. At long last the future seemed brighter for Ilkeston Town and the supporters could begin to look forward with optimism. After all the turmoil it was the least everyone deserved.