The experienced players took over in
interim charge towards the beginning of the month, following the departure of
manager Martin Carruthers and, despite suffering an Emirates FA Cup shock exit
on Tuesday night on penalties to United Counties League Premier Division North
side Anstey Nomads, the pair were handed the more permanent roles.
Ward, now 36, is a former Northern
Ireland international forward who signed for Ilkeston in May 2022 having helped
Buxton win promotion from the Northern Premier League Premier Division in
2021/22 after arriving in August 2021.
He had joined the Bucks after spending
a year with Solihull Moors in the Vanarama National League.
After starting out at Aston Villa, he
had spells with Torquay United, Chesterfield, where he played 67 times and
scored 29 goals, and Sheffield United, where he appeared 63 times and netted 9
goals.
After a loan spell with Derby County,
scoring 5 goals in 13 matches, he signed a permanent deal with the Rams in
2011, making 125 appearances and netting 29 goals and winning the first of his
35 full international caps to go with the honours earned at under-18 and
under-21 level.
He then moved to arch-rivals Nottingham
Forest in 2015 and scored 3 goals in 57 appearances.
The forward contributed two goals in 31
Championship appearances in his first campaign on Trentside, adding 5 assists
to his game too.
The following season, however, he
struggled to establish himself and joined Burton Albion on loan for the first
half of the 2016/17 campaign.
Prior to his permanent departure from
Forest in September 2019, he had loan spells at Cardiff City and Charlton Athletic.
After a short spell with Scunthorpe
United, he returned to his home-town of Birmingham in order to play for
Solihull where he scored 3 times from 21 appearances in all competitions.
Turner, 34, is an experienced
centre-back who joined Ilkeston from Buxton at the same time as Ward.
He had signed for the Bucks in July
2021 from National League side Notts County, where he had been since July 2019.
He amassed almost 300 League
appearances and has played in each of England’s top four tiers.
He was most recently with League Two
side Mansfield Town having started his career with Coventry City, making his
professional debut aged 18 in April 2006.
He joined Peterborough United on loan
for the first part of the following season before returning to the Ricoh Arena
in January and spending a short time at Oldham Athletic.
In 2007/08 he began to establish
himself in the Coventry team. He stayed with the Sky Blues until the summer of
2011, when Cardiff City parted with a reported £750,000 to secure his services.
He enjoyed a hugely successful first
season with the Bluebirds as they reached the final of the League Cup, where he
scored a dramatic equaliser deep into extra-time to send the tie to penalties.
They were ultimately beaten by
Liverpool. The defender made 43 appearances during that campaign as Cardiff
also qualified for the Championship play-offs but lost to West Ham in the
semi-finals.
The Bluebirds won the title the
following season and he made 31 Premier League appearances during 2013/14.
Injuries restricted him to just 19 appearances
in all competitions over the next two campaigns with a loan at former club
Coventry preceding his release from Cardiff in June 2016.
From there he moved to Burton Albion
and made 99 appearances before joining Mansfield for the second half of 2018/19.
Ilkeston chairman David Hilton told his
club’s website: “I cannot praise Jamie and Ben enough as they have had a really
positive impact on the squad. They are the right people to take us forward”.
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