Melbourne miss last gasp conversion and go down by 1 point

Melbourne 2nds went off for their latest pennant adventure, we had a pretty good team and for the fist time some options in the front row and no player over 25.

PS I have lost my notes so this is as I remember it.

We had Tony Day back in the fold and Joe Thompson making his first appearence, Tim Awbery ex of Cambourne School of mining at prop,. and Chris Manfrield. Joe bought a mate along Alex Birch who had never played before but is good at football, when we arrived in the changing room a Dallo arrived to play on the wing and then Danny Lawson arrived to watch so, but had his kit with him. So 19 players!!

When we arrived we looked at the team warming up on the 1st team pitch and they looked like the firsts they were in fact ilkeston 3rd and they were very large. Ilkeston 1sta and 2nds were also playing away so it showed the strength and deapth they had, as they had players who were bigger (and not in a very fat way ) than any one at Melbourne 1sts or 2nds.

I guess our hope was we would be quicker and have more stamina but the Ilkeston team looked pretty competent as well.

Dale Bilson was a bit late so we started with Danny in the centres and from the kick off Melbourne were doing OK, Ilkeston over elborated in the half backs and immediately Danny intercepted and ran the length of the pitch to score 7-0. For the first time this season we also had a dominant scrum, Chris Mansfield Jake and Pip winning ilkeston ball and generally reaking a bit of havoc.

We missed a kickable penalty to not make it 10-0 but everything looked ok

Ilkeston got the ball but were a bit static and Melbourne were all over them in the lose. The ref made some curious decisions but did not seem to favour either team.

Then it all went wrong, in no particular order Melbourne fell to peices, First Tommy Line made a big tackle and re damaged his shoulder, Phil Jones who looks injured before he starts to play damaged something, Guy Cooper also banged something, and probably most importantly the rampant Chris Mansfield who had looked spectacular for the first 15 hurt his Elbow and went off.

Lots of changes, Dallo on the wing and Danny Back on, with the late Dale, Tim Awbery in the front row and Jake Collard back row. This period of change linked to Ilkeston pulling together a cohesive style of play and bringing on a man mountain at no 8 who ran very hard resulted in Ilkeston scoring 3 tries in quick sucession, for the final try their was a hint of push by the ilkeston winger off the ball and when Sean the Sheep questioned it politely he got a yellow

Damn and blast from a pretty good postion we were 22-7 down with 4 people off injured and one man out for 10 minutes.

More rotation at half time and a I think most of thought this was a lost cause, as always in the 2nds we remained positive and supportive but I could not think of a way back. Shortly after kick off Ilkeston scored again to make it 27-7. We got Sean the sheep back on and from that moment Melbourne were transformed, Sean was playing in a very angry manner and started running into the heart of Ilkeston, there were big hits going in all over the place I noticed good work by Chris williams, Tony Day, Joe Thompson, and Dallo playing out of his skin.

We were suddenly found alot of belief and the tries started to come, all theee of the them by Dale, and since i have lost my peice of paper I can not remember then all, one was a pass by Danny L others were great timing from Will Cresswell who looked the real deal.

Tim Awbery seemed to be very angy about something, and all in all we scared the living daylights out of Ilkeston. Ilkeston still had chances to score from close in, but we were really committed and no on let us down

The ilkeston Ginger winger was sent for a tem minute rest and lots of decisisons went Melbournes way, for no apparent reason.

Alex Birch came on for the freshly broken Phil Jones and played really well in his first game.

In the end with 5 to go when we scored our last try we had a kick to take the lead but missed and for the last 4 minutes we never really got into the ilkeston half but had a lot of ball

Very brave effort and 2 points (not bad) Ilkeston have real strength and deapth, and the fact that they have been playing at a higher level for many years shows in that they have expericed and class playes right down to the 3rds.

Mlebourne can not suddenly come up with a team that has been playing together for years and all way over 17 stone, but if we carry on like this the wins will come

Over the games Ilkeston had more chances but Melbourne had more runs into space and plenty of occasions where we were 1 on 1 with the full back etc, so we played with very different styles

If we carry on picking up points and playing our fixtures we will not be bottom of this league.

Loads of great play this week but for the three tries Dale is man of the match.

It would be great if Dallo would forsake Derby County for Rugby but I guess we have to live with that, and if Tim A and Alex get down to training they will soon be pushing for 1st team action I think

Next week a week off, come and watch the 2nds and the week after home match vs West Bridgeford