By Chris Wood for North Derbyshire Radio
Matlock Town ended 2025 on a rather negative note as they were well beaten by an Ossett United side who were, at the start of the day, potentially glancing over their shoulders towards the relegation places.
The game couldn’t have got off to a much worse start as the hosts took the lead inside the first minute. Rhys Thomas did very well to cut across the penalty area and fire a well-controlled, low finish into the bottom corner past Wharton in the Gladiators goal. Matlock’s defence was all at sea as they struggled to get a challenge in at this early point of the game.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only low point of a first half where the visitors struggled to find a foothold in the game. Ten minutes later, the hosts had another chance to double their lead and if not for a last-ditch tackle from Declan Eratt-Thompson, they would have succeeded in doing so.
As the first half progressed, Matlock did manage to grow into the game to an extent and started to put some pressure on the Ossett backline, although none of this pressure actually came to anything more fruitful than a corner. The closest the Gladiators came was a half chance as Connor Washington flicked the ball towards goal, but it was easily caught by Petrovic in the Ossett goal.
Ossett continued to press Matlock’s backline throughout the first half as they hoped to capitalise on a counterattack. In injury time at the end of the first half, this pressure finally came good as Ossett added a second. Jack Crook found himself in a world of space in the Matlock box, all defenders seeming to back away from him in attempt to block the shot and the number 9 managed to fire past the keeper. It actually seemed more like the defenders got in Wharton’s way rather than them rushing out to block the forthcoming shot.
Half-Time – Ossett United 2-0 Matlock Town
The half-time team talk didn’t seem to have the desired effect on the Matlock players. They did come out in the second half with a little more oomph about them and were a little more direct in their passing, but they still didn’t really test the Ossett goalkeeper nearly enough.
On 55 minutes, a corner found its way out to Dwayne Wiley on the edge of the box, who fired a half-volley to goal, but his attempt was well wide.
The Gladiators continued to create a series of half chances throughout the next 20 minutes or so. The closest they came was on the 61st minute as Washington broke through before squaring to Wilson. The latter found his low shot well saved by the goalkeeper’s feet. The ball then found its way out to Milambo on the left wing who again tried to square the ball, but it deflected out for nothing more than a corner. This corner found the free head of Wiley, but his header was straight at the keeper.
However, the increasing pressure from the visitors didn’t bring any dues, and on the 73rd minute, the hosts added a third. This goal was probably the pick of the bunch as Thomas grabbed his second with an excellent shot from the edge of the box that dipped past Wharton into the back of the net.
The final throw of the dice came from an Ossett point of view as, without a good block from Eratt-Thompson, the hosts would have added a 4th with 10 minutes to go.
Full-Time – Ossett United 3-0 Matlock Town
All in all, a very disappointing day at the office for Adam Clayton’s side. I’ve been saying on my video reports for a few weeks now that away performances haven’t been good enough and today was the cherry on the icing on the cake. Questions need to be answered after this performance, and the issues need to be sorted and quickly as Matlock can’t afford for the teams at the top of the table to start running away from them especially considering a lot of the teams around them dropped points too. This game definitely felt like 3rd vs 16th (as it was before kick-off) but not in the way most fans would have expected before a ball was kicked.
Matlock Town are next in action on New Year’s Day when they welcome Silsden to the Proctor Cars Stadium.
Ossett XI – 1. Petrovic, 2. A. Tweed, 3. Askew (C), 4. B. Tweed (Middleton 27’), 5. Thompson, 6. Qualter, 7. Bolino (Fanning 79’), 8. Proctor (King 86’), 9. Crook (Janneh 76’), 10. Degruchy (Johnson 86’), 11. Thomas
Matlock XI – 1. Wharton, 2. Eratt-Thompson, 3. Milambo, 4. Bachirou (C) (Mbayo 61’), 5. Wiley, 6. Oglesby, 7. Thompson, 8. Flanagan (K. Clayton 72’), 9. Washington, 10. Sault, 11. Wilson
