Adopted Club

As the hype of the Premier League takes all of the media spotlight these days, there aren't many followers of the lower leagues, (and when I say lower leagues, I mean properly low, even lower than the Conference South) Now I know Northwich Victoria aren't likely to be on the television at the local in 3-D, but hey, your pub owner might be a huge Vics fan, but then he'd have to install 3-D cameras at the ground and then hire someone to operate them and... It's pretty unlikely let's put it that way.

But I thought we could give a "smaller" club, it's time in the limelight so with my calculator at the ready, the random number generator says... 212... Oh great, now I have to trawl through the leagues until I reach club number 212...

And the results are in, the Football Hearsay official supporting club are... Ilkeston F.C. of the Northern Premier League Division One South!

So who exactly are Ilkeston?

In case you already didn't know, Ilkeston F.C. were originally formed in 1894 as Ilkeston Town, Oh how times have changed, In the 2008–09 season they finished second behind Eastwood Town in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. In the play-offs they beat Kendal Town 4–3 to reach the final. The club gained promotion to the Conference North on 2 May 2009 when they beat Nantwich Town in the play off final 2–1 after extra time with a 94th-minute winner, in front of 1,794 fans.

Their first season in the Conference North was a successful one as they finished in eighth place in the table, as well as progressing to the first round proper of the FA Cup where they lost to Cambridge United. At the end of the 2009–10 season the club came under new ownership with Gary Hodder taking over as chairman.

In their 2010–11 season they initially played in Conference North, but their record was expunged on 8 September 2010 as they were subject to a winding up order in the high court over a £47,000 tax bill from the Chek Whyte era. Two months after liquidating, the club was reformed as a renamed Ilkeston F.C. and were admitted into the Northern Premier League Division One South in May 2011.

So as you can see, we've picked a club with a wonderful track record on the pitch, financially,...

We'll be keeping track of Ilkeston's performances throughout the season, but here's a how they are doing at the moment.

Ilkeston are currently sitting in 3rd place the Evo-Stik League Northern Premier after a flying start to the season, they've picked up 9 wins from 14 and are just 1 point of the leaders Sheffield FC, their biggest win of the season was against Market Drayton Town with a 6-0 smashing by the Robins with a Caskey double.

Their next game is today against Romulus at home, the Robins will be looking for their 5th home win of the season at the fortress of New Manor Ground.

COYI

And in case you want to show your support, the club's official webiste is here http://www.ilkestonfc.co.uk/