By Mark Chestney

North Ferriby United lived to fight another day as they drew 1-1 with Ilkeston Town in the FA Carlsberg Trophy.

They had to cope with the 36th minute dismissal of goalkeeper Antoni Pecora for denying a goal scoring opportunity to Town striker Adam Muller.
But as they usually do Ferriby responded superbly and grabbed an equaliser and could have gone on to win the game.

It was another pleasing performance from Neil Allison’s side and he was high in praise of his players. Allison will now take his players to Ilkeston on Wednesday night to see if they can do a job with eleven men.

“I thought we got at least what we deserved by a replay especially after we went a man down”, said Allison.

“I don’t think they altered the way they wanted to ply when this happened and it worked in our favour. We went after them but we just couldn’t get the winner and we’ll go for the replay on Wednesday instead.

“When you get into a position were your keeper goes off you are fighting against it. If it had been a league game I would have taken a point but we get another crack at them this week.

“The lads worked their socks off yet again and we looked like we wanted to go on and win the game. The work rate was fantastic and we played unbelievably well with ten men.”

Both sides started nervously and not creating any clear cut chances which is typical cup tie football. There was a five minute stoppage on the tenth minute when Town’s Neil Ross was stretchered off.

The striker was injured in a collision with Paul Foot a couple of minutes earlier. But he went down again and was taken from the field to be replaced by former Hull City striker Martin Carruthers.

The first chance of the opening half fell to Gary Bradshaw who beat the offside trap. The ball fell nicely for him but he was only able to put a left footed drive wide of the post.

Pecora was ten given a red card after a real mix up in the area which resulted in Muller being bundled over. The dismissal seemed harsh but it happened and Ferriby were down to ten men.

Joel Hartley was the man to leave the field so replacement keeper James Windeatt could come on. The dismissal seemed to spur Ferriby on and the half closed with Michael Price rifling a free kick just over the bar.

Ferriby came out in the second half to force two corners in quick succession both taken by Price. The second saw Foot a menace around the six yard box forcing Town keeper Paul Pettinger to push the ball into his own net.

The home side kept trying for the winning goal against an Ilkeston side who showed very little in attack. They were also forced on the defensive as Ferriby finished the stronger and who will look to continue this on Wednesday.