Matlock suffered their worst defeat of the season at Silverlands, going down 5-1.

With points priceless for the two clubs for different reasons, a keenly contested local derby is anticipated.

The fifth-placed Bucks look well set to emulate Matlock’s feat of last season in reaching the play-offs and they boast a formidable away record, winning nine out of their 16 league games on the road, and losing just two.

And Matlock are likely to face an equally difficult game at eighth-placed Hednesford Town on Easter Monday.

Despite a largely favourable set of results from the Matlock viewpoint in the past seven days, the Gladiators have slipped to 12th in a tightly congested UniBond Premier Division.

But there were definite signs of encouragement in Saturday’s goalless draw at home to Fleetwood,who were indebted to three tremendous saves by goalkeeper Danny Hurst to earn their draw (report on page 42).

“It was a very good performance, a good point, but on the balance of the play we deserved all three,” said Matlock joint manager Phil Brown.

“We were looking for a reaction following the very disappointing show up at Ossett where we let ourselves down.

“There was a keen desire to put things right.

“The question now of course is can we do it consistently? We were hoping to do just that up at Ashton but it wasn’t to be.”

Monday night’s visit to Ashton proved to be a wasted one as a power failure at 7.10 pm saw the Hurst Cross ground fall into darkness and despite the best efforts of an electrician, the remedial work required was too much to enable the game to go ahead.

Knowing the importance of collecting league points quickly, Brown refused to commit himself as to whether he would continue with the same formation over the Easter period.

“It’s horses for courses and it may be that we’ll revert to the 4-4-2.