Ilkeston Town 'down to bare bones' after straight defeats

The Robins lost 4-1 at Coalville Town in the FA Trophy on Saturday, that being followed by a 2-0 defeat at Rushall Olympic in the league on Tuesday.

With injuries already affecting Ward’s squad, skipper and centre-half Kieran Fenton was then taken off injured at Coalville, before another centre-half, Marshall Willock, was one of two players red carded at Rushall – Dempsey Arlott-John also seeing red to now face a three-game ban.

Willock will only miss one match as he was dismissed for two bookable offences, but Ward says more reinforcements will be needed to add to that of loanee Finn Delap who made his debut at Rushall.

He said: “Dempsey’s challenge at Rushall was ridiculous and one he didn’t need to make as he was never going to get the ball, while Marshy got caught on the wrong side for his second yellow and was sent off.

"We’ve a few problems at centre-half especially now. I thought Finn was excellent on his debut and for a 17-year-old took it all in his stride really well and looks like he has a bright future.

"Now we need to go and find another couple of centre-halves, one to play on Saturday and another to back these two up.”

Ilkeston go to Hertforshire on Saturday to take on Royston Town, with Ward keen to see his players pick up some form.

He said: “It’s easy to turn up and do it when people come in as caretaker managers but since we came in permanently our performance levels have dipped to where they were before.

"That’s something for me and Ben [Turner – assistant manager] to observe and we’ll change things where we can change things.

"It will take time to get it right but hopefully once we do get it right, performances and results will start coming.

"We need to sign players because at the moment we’re bare bones and the two red cards have killed us even more so hopefully we can sort something for the weekend and get a good training session in on Thursday ahead of what will be a long trip and tough game on Saturday.”