By Chris Wood for North Derbyshire Radio
Photo Credit: Michael South Photography
The Gladiators got off to a bad start for the 26/27 season as they lost 2-0 at home to last season’s fellow playoff contenders Dunston. The visitors have been in and around the playoff picture in the NPL East Division for the past few seasons so it was potentially a tricky start for the Gladiators.
Hoping to put some of the ups and downs of the summer break behind them, the game began with a minute’s applause in memory of Charlie Cresswell, Matlock’s former goalkeeping coach who passed away over the Summer. I wish to send my condolences to his family and friends.
Now, onto the football! It took about 10 minutes or so for the game to really come alive as both sides tried to figure each other out in the early stages but it was the visitors who had the first chance. They managed to break at pace and hit Matlock on the counter attack. Good defending from Bachirou meant that the inevitable shot only went for a corner.
4 minutes later, Dunston took the lead. It was a bit of a freak goal but from what I could see, a free kick was swung in from the right wing and seemed to evade everyone before dropping in to the corner of the net. There must have been a flick somewhere on the way through as Bollado was credited with the goal.
It threatened to go from bad to worse for Matlock as, on the quarter hour mark, new keeper Marcus Dewhurst was on the receiving end of a nasty looking knee to the head from a Dunston forward. A long delay followed but thankfully the goalkeeper was able to continue with a large bandage on his head.
Just after the restart from Dewhurst’s injury, the Gladiators actually had the ball in the net after Cummings tapped home. However the referee deemed there to have been a foul on the goalkeeper in the build-up and so the goal was ruled out.
2 minutes later the hosts hit the post! Abbey found himself through on goal and flicked a shot towards the top corner, unfortunately it bounced off the upright and was cleared away to safety by a Dunston defender.
There was very little action for most of the remainder of the first-half, as both sides battled it out in midfield. Matlock trying to carve out an opening and Dunston trying to counterattack and double their lead and 4 minutes before the break, they did just that. A ball over the top found Bollado again who did well to ride the challenges from Cummings and eventually finished very well into the bottom corner. Top quality centre-forward play to be fair to the Dunston number 9.
Half-Time – Matlock Town 0-2 Dunston UTS
After the restart (and a double substitution) Matlock seemed to come out fighting and managed to carve out a couple of half-chances. The introduction of Milambo in particular being a spark in the Gladiators’ front line. Unfortunately though, none of these half-chances actually led to any real goalscoring chances.
Midway through the second half, there was potentially a chance as Matlock had a shout for a penalty. McLean was played through to the byline and his cross seemingly hit the arm of a Dunston defender. Frustratingly though, it was on the wrong side for the referee to se it and the linesman was blocked off too, so no penalty was awarded.
Some excellent defending on a couple of occasions helped to keep the score at 2-0 and reduce the damage to the Gladiators’ goal difference. Firstly, a goal saving challenge from Milambo, followed a few minutes later by an excellent tight angle save from Dewhurst served to spare more blushes for Matlock’s players and fans.
Full-Time – Matlock Town 0-2 Dunston UTS
All in all then, not the best start to the season for the blue and white faithful. A disjointed performance that lacked a real cutting edge up front and with a few costly mistakes at the back. It’s a long season and there’s a lot of football still to be played but Matlock will hope to right the wrongs from today as quickly as possible. There is a quick turnaround and they have a chance to learn lessons from today when they host Grimsby Borough on Tuesday evening (11/08/26) with kick off at 7:45pm.
Matlock XI – 1. Dewhurst, 2. Eratt-Thompson, 3. Bachirou, 4. Andoh (Bradbury 77’), 5. Cummings (C), 6. Senior, 7. McLean, 8. Leesley (Asante-Boakye 46’), 9. Washington, 10. Abbey, 11. Jeffers (Milambo 46’)
Dunston XI – 1. Marshall, 2. H. Neary, 3. Stephenson, 4. Turnbull (Pearson 68’), 5. Swailes, 6. Devitt, 7. Turner (Shaw 68’), 8. Ross, 9. Bollado (O’Donnell 81’), 10. Robinson, 11. Ramsey (Edwards 74’)
