Our youth team’s title hopes in the FCYA (Midland Division) are over after a 5-1 defeat away to table-toppers Ilkeston this afternoon.
It was a miserable day for the Stags, who were 4-0 down inside the opening half-hour, had midfielder Chris Spencer sent-off and also lost shot-stopper Jordan Fell to a suspected knee injury.
The result means that Ilkeston are now champions, whilst our youngsters have two matches remaining – against Corby Town and Chesterfield Blues respectively.
On a sunny afternoon at the New Manor Ground, the Stags began well and could have gone 1-0 up after just six minutes when Matty Jones’ in-swinging free-kick rattled the upright.
Nevertheless, it was Ilkeston who opened the scoring a minute later as Eli Baker latched onto a low ball and spun away from Charlie Brownlie inside the area, before slotting home from six yards.
Things went from bad to worse on the quarter-hour mark when the hosts made it 2-0.
Gregor Seymour latched onto a long ball over the top and outmuscled his marker, before rounding a grounded Fell and coolly slotting home from the edge of the six-yard box.
Chey Adams put the hosts into dreamland on 21 minutes when he made it 3-0 with a vicious strike from an acute angle, following a long ball forwards from Ilkeston’s right-back.
The goals continued to flow for the home team and on the half-hour mark, Curtis Burrows’ piercing left-wing cross into the area caught a glancing header off Courey Grantham, which made it 4-0.
The Stags’ miserable day became even worse when Spencer was shown a straight red card after an innocuous incident in a packed penalty area awaiting a set-piece on 38 minutes.
Dan Fletcher had an acrobatic effort blocked on the line just a few moments later, before Fell saved well from Seymour’s low drive at the other end prior to half-time.
The Stags lost goalkeeper Fell to injury only moments after the re-start, when he clattered into an Ilkeston player in clearing a dangerous loose ball and suffered a suspected knee injury.
Midfielder Jack Thomas grabbed a consolation for us with a well-placed penalty on the hour mark after some good work by Ross Lamb inside the area drew an untidy challenge.
However, Ilkeston completed the scoring late on as Grantham was in the right place at the right time to bundle home a low cross through the goalmouth by Rai Simons.
Team: Fell (Waldram), Spencer, Brownlie (Hempshall), Fitzpatrick, Koczalski, Marsden, Jones, J.Thomas, Lamb, Hemagou, Fletcher (Hodgett-Young).
The latest FCYA (Midland Division) table can be viewed by clicking here. Our youth team fixture list for the 2013/14 campaign can be found by clicking here.
