Matlock Town climb table as busy February begins

Matlock Town climbed into 13th spot on Tuesday night as they kicked off a busy February, which sees them play six more league matches.
Laurie Wilson was on the scoresheet during Tuesday night's win. Pic by James Williamson.Laurie Wilson was on the scoresheet during Tuesday night's win. Pic by James Williamson.
Laurie Wilson was on the scoresheet during Tuesday night's win. Pic by James Williamson.

The win came hot on the heels of Saturday’s extraordinary 4-4 draw at high flying Ashton United when Matlock found themselves 2-0 at the interval only for a dramatic turnaround to unfold which saw them fall 4-2 behind midway through the second half.

But the rollercoaster ride was complete when substitute and leading scorer Joel Purkiss scored twice to earn the Gladiators their point.

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Speaking about the Ashton draw, Hume said: “The game plan was working at half-time, but then we had a mad ten or 12 minutes when we lost our way and it’s all about the lads managing the game right.”

Hume also praised assistant Scott Maxfield for helping kickstart the fightback with a double substitution.

“It was Scott who saw that the double change was needed, he put it to me and I said we’d go with it, so full credit to him,” he said.

“That’s why we work together and trust each others’ judgement, if we hadn’t Ashton would probably have got five or six.

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“The changes stretched it out and gave us more pace. Not many teams will go and score four at Ashton, everybody says we need that goalscorer but we’ve hit seven goals in two matches.

“It’s not a problem at the moment for we’ve got good options on the bench. I’m more concerned that we start keeping a few more clean sheets.”

Hume admitted he had to give his side “a bit of a roasting” at half time in the Grantham win.

He added: “We dominated early on, got a great goal from Laurie’s free kick but they scored a cracker almost straightaway which probably left some of the lads thinking here we go again, but the change and some strong words improved us,

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“We went 4-4-2, brought Tom on although he wasn’t 100 per cent to help negate Ben Saunders and pushed Laurie Wilson into midfield. We got back on top again and scored two plus what pleased me, we saw the game out well.”

Laurie Wilson and Nicky Travis were both outstanding in midweek, Wwith ilson donning the captain’s armband in the absence of both Holland and Ted Cribley from the starting line up.

“Laurie’s a good leader, he leads by example by doing the right things and doesn’t have to shout and scream to get his point across,” he said.

“His free-kicks and corners have been top quality. On Tuesday we saw Trav can play wide right as well as anywhere across the midfield, he just has to be careful discipline wise but he has tremendous vision and creativity.”

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Cribley, having completed his three match ban, will be added to the squad for Saturday’s home derby with Mickleover Sports, managed by former Matlock favourites Glenn Kirkwood and Craig Hopkins.

That should add extra spice to the contest in which former Matlock loanee Jack Broadhead should feature for Sports while Matlock signed winger Charlie Dawes from Mickleover in December.