By Chris Wood for North Derbyshire Radio
Matlock Town’s final away day of the season ended in victory for Cresswell and Ravenhill’s men as they travelled up the A1 to face Newton Aycliffe in the NPL East Division. Following last week’s result, the Gladiators knew that their position in the table could not change regardless of what happened in the last 2 games. As such, 8 changes were made to the starting XI, with a much-needed opportunity for a rest for some players, and fitness boosting minutes for others.
The first half was relatively incident free, with the clearly much changed Gladiators XI, struggling to find the same kind of rhythm that they’ve shown in recent matches. The only flashes of something in the first quarter of the game were Bruno Andrade wining a couple of free kicks on the corner of the box. The first one saw Milambo send a cross too high towards the back post, with Bruno having an attempt from the second one, straight at the keeper on this occasion.
Just after the half hour mark, the Gladiators finally had their breakthrough. Atherton flicked the ball over the top of a defender to Bruno. He managed to step inside and find a finish low and into the bottom corner for his first goal for Matlock.
2 minutes later, the visitors had a penalty shout, with Atherton bursting through and seemingly tripped by the defender in the box. The referee was slightly blind sided by the players in question and gave nothing more than a corner.
For the remainder of the half, the Gladiators struggled to break down the hosts and fashion any clear-cut opportunities. In fact, it was Newton Aycliffe who would go closest at the end of the first half from a free kick. The Aycliffe player managed to get his shot up and over the wall but an excellent save from Lambton kept the Gladiators ahead going into the break.
Half-Time – Newton Aycliffe 0-1 Matlock Town
The second half started in much brighter fashion than the first, the Gladiators doubling their lead after just 4 minutes. Bruno was through 1 on 1 and his shot was well saved by the Aycliffe keeper. As the hosts tried to clear, the ball fell favourably to Viggars who simply had to fire into the roof of the net with the goalkeeper stranded.
Matlock continued to create chances for the next 15-20 minutes, but the hosts consistently managed to scramble the ball away. Both Viggars and Bruno went close (the latter hitting the post) but Aycliffe, who were playing for their NPL East survival, remained firm.
It was actually the hosts who would strike next, as a ball to the back post on 64 minutes found former Gladiator Jake Orrell unmarked at the back post to smash home.
8 minutes later, Aycliffe equalised as again a cross evaded all the Gladiators defenders and Sloan found himself in space to head home, cue absolute pandemonium from the home supporters. Aycliffe knew that they needed to beat the Gladiators in order to avoid relegation and it was suddenly game on!
As you can imagine, the hosts now had their tails up and pushed for a winner, they had a lot of the possession in the closing stages and fashioned chances of their own. Nothing too troubling for the Gladiators defence.
The tensions actually threatened to boil over at one point as Wiley didn’t enjoy a challenge he received from an Aycliffe player. Granite uncharacteristically playing peacekeeper for a moment as he prevented it completely boiling over.
3 minutes into added time, the hosts thought they’d won it as they had a big shout for a penalty. Mbayo went flying into the challenge, but it certainly looked from where we were standing that he got the ball, and the referee agreed. Much to the annoyance of the home fans of course.
2 minutes later the points for Matlock were wrapped up. Substitute Washington nicked the ball off an Aycliffe defender and went 1 on 1 with the keeper, you can probably guess the rest! His shot flying in at the keeper’s near post to make sure the Gladiators’ away campaign ended positively.
Full-Time – Newton Aycliffe 2-3 Matlock Town
A good showing in this game from a much-changed team for Matlock. At the end of the day the points didn’t matter either way but it’s infinitely better to get a win and keep the momentum going into the final match and then the playoffs. The final match of the season is next weekend as the Gladiators host Grimsby Borough in the NPL East Division with a 3pm kick off.
The play-off semi final is the Tuesday after (28/04) and tickets are available from Matlock Town’s website.
Newton Aycliffe XI – 1. Fisher, 2. White, 3. Pascoe (C), 4. Clarkson, 5. Sloan, 6. Slocombe, 7. Henson, 8. Fitzpatrick, 9. Dawson, 10. Orrell, 11. Robertson
Matlock XI – 1. Lambton, 2. Milambo, 3. Macdonald, 4. Mbayo, 5. Wiley (C), 6. Oglesby, 7. Thompson (Bachirou 71’), 8. Sault (Eratt-Thompson 46’), 9. Viggars (Washington 63’), 10. Andrade, 11. Atherton
