Lancaster City visit Ilkeston Town hoping to create momentum 

Lancaster City visit Ilkeston Town at the New Manor Ground after two successive wins.

Those results, away to Bradford (Park Avenue) and at home to Matlock Town, have made it a solid start to manager Chris Willcock’s reign at Lancaster City.

The Dolly Blues have bounced back from the disappointment of his first game in charge - a 4-0 defeat at the hands of high-flying Hyde United - and have climbed up to ninth in the NPL Premier Division.

They are just five points off the playoff positions.

City’s opponents this weekend, Ilkeston Town, have only been in existence for seven years and transferred to the NPL last summer from the Southern Football League.

‘The Robins’ are currently 11th in the NPL Premier Division.

They have, in recent weeks, been enjoying arguably their strongest period of the season, accumulating 13 points from their last 5 games.

Since their defeat to Whitby Town on New Year’s Day, they have gone unbeaten, with victories over FC United of Manchester, Worksop Town, Basford United and Stafford Rangers.

Last weekend, they drew at home to second placed Marine.

Ilkeston gave Lancaster their first heavy loss of the season back in September with a comfortable 4-0 win at The Giant Axe - City were second before the Robins visited LA1 that day.

Their striker Jamie Walker is the joint third highest scorer in the league this season. 

Speaking to Beyond Radio last weekend, Lancaster boss Chris Willcock challenged his players to “play better than they did” against Matlock Town.

Despite a 1-0 win, which gave City their first clean sheet in seven games, Willcock wasn’t totally satisfied with some aspects of the performance.

Should they win this weekend, The Dolly Blues will have won three games in a row for the first time since September.

Ilkeston Town v Lancaster City kicks off at 3pm on Saturday (February 10) at the New Manor Ground.