Stourbridge 1 Ilkeston 2

Gary Hackett made one enforced change to the team that began Saturday’s drawn match at Darlington, with Ben Billingham returning in place of the injured Matt Dodd.

Stourbridge opened strongly and had the first sight of goal when Justin Richards was fouled just outside the penalty area before picking himself up to fire the resulting free kick into the wall, from where it was cleared to safety. Chris Lait then ran at the Ilkeston defence and crossed from the left, forcing a corner from which the ball dropped to Dan Scarr ten yards out. However, the Glassboys defender was unable to keep his shot under control as the ball took an age to come down and struck it well over the bar. Billingham then tried a speculative volley from 20 yards but saw the ball drop wide of the far post.

Ilkeston, playing their trademark passing game, were enjoying a fair amount of possession but finding it difficult to create openings. Michael Williams got away down the left with 14 minutes gone, but when he cut the ball back to the edge of the area he could only find Leon Broadhurst who cleared easily.

Richards came within a whisker of opening the scoring with 21 minutes on the clock as Tom Tonks broke down the right and fizzed in a low cross which the target man, stretching out a long leg, could not quite make contact with, allowing Ross Durrant to gather.

At the other end Williams tried his luck with a volley from 25 yards out but saw the ball drift wide, much like Billingham’s earlier effort, although Solly’s full-length dive suggested it may not have been too far off target.

Within 30 seconds, though, Stourbridge were ahead, with a goal that owed more than a little to fortune. Lait, who was involved in many of the Glassboys’ most promising moves, worked space on the left for a cross and pulled the ball back to Billingham around the penalty spot. Durrant seemed to have the Stourbridge winger’s left-foot shot covered, but a heavy deflection from a defender rendered him helplessly wrong-footed and powerless to prevent the goal.

Broadhurst was close to doubling the lead just six minutes later, as his perfectly-struck left-foot shot whistled past the angle of post and crossbar, but that apart Ilkeston were slowly gaining more of a toe-hold in the game and asking questions of the Stourbridge defence, forcing a couple of corners and then creating a chance from good work by Charlie Coulson and Dexter Atkinson for Eli Bako six yards out, who couldn’t get the ball out from under his feet and was crowded out by a combination of Junior Smikle and Stuart Pierpoint.

Karl Hawley came close four minutes from the break, turning in the six yard box and getting in a shot which took a touch off his marker. This time, however, fortune smiled on Durrant, who must have instinctively feared the worst as he watched the ball roll towards, and then just wide of, the far post.

Stourbridge will have felt they were worth their half-time lead, but Ilkeston quickly showed that the second half would be no formality as first Danny Udoh fired over, and then Bako got in a header that Solly held under the crossbar, all within the opening three minutes.

Hawley and Richards combined to go close for the Glassboys on 50 minutes, Hawley crossing low from the right for his strike partner to stab just the wrong side of the near post, and then Broadhurst troubled Durrant with a driven free kick which skimmed the Amblecote turf, forcing the Ilkeston stopper to parry and then watch as a covering defender hacked to safety.

But from that point it was the visitors who assumed control, mixing up some probing passing with the occasional long ball for their forwards to chase. The lively Marcus Harness ran at Smikle down the visitors’ right flank before unleashing an ambitious cross-shot that thumped against the far post before rebounding for Pierpoint to clear.

The warning signs came to fruition for the Robins, though, with 25 minutes to play. Williams won a header from a deep cross into the box as the home defence hesitated, and Udoh controlled the ball before firing past Solly for a deserved equaliser.

The Glassboys looked rattled and were indebted a couple of minutes later to Smikle for a timely header at the far post which denied the lurking Atkinson, and then Solly had to come off his line to punch clear, just beating Atkinson again to the ball.

Lait almost put Stourbridge ahead again as the game entered the final 20 minutes, running at the heart of the Ilkeston defence before sending his shot just wide, but it was the visitors who were looking most like adding to the scoreline, and they did just that with 74 minutes played.

Coulson got the better of Kristian Green on the Ilkeston left and crossed into the Stourbridge penalty area, where Udoh and Matt Baker helped the ball on to Atkinson who stole in at the far post and hammered the ball low past Solly and into the net.

With their ten-match unbeaten run under threat, Stourbridge roused themselves, as first Lait and then Broadhurst both shot over the bar from outside the penalty area, before Hawley dragged a shot wide on 86 minutes, whilst stoppage time saw Scarr head over and Green into the grateful clutches of Durrant.

The result sees Stourbridge remain third in the Premier Division table, pending the results of Tuesday night’s fixtures.