MATCH REPORT: Ilkeston Town 3-2 Workington AFC

After providing the patient Workington support with some hope in recent weeks, this abject performance just compounded everyone’s frustration, putting the slow, gradual improvement on hold.

To finish second best of two poor teams is hard to take but more so because Reds looked disjointed all over the pitch and their mental approach to what, on paper, looked a winnable game simply wasn’t good enough.

Conceding a goal after twenty-one seconds certainly wasn’t in the script but that set the tone for the mistaken-ridden fiasco which followed. And even when Town were reduced to ten men, twenty-five minutes from the end, Reds didn’t have the guile to deal with the situation.

Going behind in the first few seconds obviously nullifies any pre-match brief so Reds were up against it straightaway. And Harvey Kirby-Moore probably couldn’t believe his good fortune as he fended off a pretty feeble challenge to score one of his quickest ever goals to open the scoring.

The response came from the usual source but David Symington’s two efforts at goal never threatened Alfie Roberts in the home goal.

Town doubled their advantage in the twentieth minute when Dylan Youmbi forced the ball home from close range after a header had rebounded conveniently off the crossbar.

Symington reduced the deficit with a well worked and superbly finished goal five minutes later and Luke Ellis equalised with a neat side-foot finish, after good combination play with the skipper, in the thirty-ninth minute.

So, back on terms after a horrible opening twenty minutes and the mood changed momentarily.

But instead of closing out the game to half time and re-assessing the situation, charitable Reds immediately handed the initiative back to the hosts when Youmbi was allowed to shoot from distance. In slow-motion, almost, the ball crept into the bottom corner of Alex Mitchell’s net for what proved to be the forty-second minute winner.

The second half was much ado about nothing and neither side looked capable of adding to the goal spree of the first with a distinct lack of fluency evident.

Reds made two substitutions on the restart, tweaked the system a couple of times and eventually used all five on the bench but couldn’t find a way back into the game.

And when Ilkeston were reduced to ten men after sixty-six minutes, Reds became even more passive.

Youmbi’s trickery might have won him a penalty when he went down in the box but the referee, instead, booked him for a simulated fall and, as it was his second yellow, he was invited to take an early shower.

Was this an opportunity for Reds to get something from the game? It was but they didn’t take it and, if anything, Ilkeston looked in less danger in the remaining twenty-five minutes than they had earlier in the game.

Workington lacked urgency and desire to get forward and seemed content to pass the ball around with little purpose in their own half. In the end, the ten men didn’t have to battle or scrap to secure their victory and claimed the points with a worrying ease.

Reds now face a break from their league programme but need a positive response from this poor display if they are to make any progress in the FA Trophy.

Ilkeston Town: Roberts, Minkley, Daniel (Ross-Lang, 46), Whyle, Marshall, Parker (Okyere, 29), Youmbi, Dixon, Kirby-Moore (Fox, 80), Thornhill, Walker (Stevens, 73).

Substitute – Sulkowski (not used)

Workington: Mitchell, Barnes (Atkinson, 46), Leslie (Deans, 67), McGladdery (Allan, 46), Little (Hopper, 74), Dickinson, Symington, Fitzpatrick, Rigg, Ellis (Park, 85), Galloway.

Referee: Richard Walker, Redditch

Bookings: Daniel, Youmbi, Dixon, Walker (Ilkeston Town), Mitchell, Barnes, Leslie, Galloway (Workington).

Red card: Youmbi (Ilkeston Town – two yellows)

Attendance: 364