It is that time in the season when games come thick and fast as we play our third fixture in eight days. Matlock come to town, much as they did last April to end the 2018/19 season, when we finished the league season with a convincing 4-1 victory. As the saying goes, it appeared that on that game, Matlock were already on the beach.

There have been big changes over the summer at Matlock Town. At the end of last season manager Dave Frecklington left and his replacement was Steve Kittrick. Steve Kittrick is a well-known manager in non-league football having managed at all levels with Ossett Town, Guiseley AFC Telford and Scarborough Athletic. He led Scarborough to promotion to the NPL Premier Division in 2017/18 and they were in and around the top six or seven for long spells and were league leaders before he was dismissed as the Seadogs manager in March 2018. Kittrick’s assistant is former Grimsby Town midfielder Chris Bolder who was with him at Scarborough and has had previous managerial experience at North Ferriby United.

Matlock kicked off the season with a home win over Baber Bridge, However it was Monday night when things changed as they travelled to Basford and came away with a 1-0 win, which put them top of the league before the Tuesday night games which put Matlock in 4th place of the embryonic league table as one of four teams with a 100% record in two games. According to their match report few Matlock fans would have expected this win especially as Basford pout 6 past them last season. Hopefully we will put their mini run to an end on Saturday. Apparently, the crowd of 501 at Basford was their highest in recent history.

As we have experienced in recent years a new manager sees a big player movement and this summer Kittrick has brought in 14 new players with 8 making their debut on the opening day. However long-established Matlock player Adan Yates is still with the gladiators although he was injured and unable to play in the win over Basford.

It will be interesting to see what Matlock expect on Saturday as according to their website, their next game is against Stafford United. Well, we certainly do not expect repeat of last season’s score, but you never know, as Jimmy Greaves once said, “football is a funny game”. So see you on Saturday, and do not forget that the new fans bar will be open under the stand with its tempting early offers

Games played on 24TH August this century

2002 Chippenham                      H           0-0            Southern League
2004 Nuneaton                           A           3-4            Conference North
2010 Ilkeston                               A           2-0            Conference North
2013 Corby                                  H           0-0            Northern Prem
2016 Trafford                              H          1-4             Northern Prem

Déjà vu is the case for our first home game of the season with Grantham as this was the exact scenario last season. In fact, there are many similarities with this season and last. Last season we travelled to the North West for our opening fixture but returned empty handed with an odd goal defeat. On Saturday we again travelled to the North West and again returned home empty handed after an odd goal defeat. So, does this mean that the game with Grantham will be yet another draw like last season. Only time will tell.

Last season this game finished 1-1 with our goal from Louis Briscoe on 61 minutes cancelled out by an equaliser 5 minutes later. Briscoe is one of only 7 of that squad that are still with us now. However, a more appealing result would be a repeat of our victory away at Grantham last season, which saw us record a 5-0 victory, with all 5 goals coming via headers from 5 different players.

Many of the fans who travelled to Lancaster Saturday were not happy with the first half performance, but we all saw a spirited second half fightback which showed the potential of the squad, and had lady luck gone our way we could easily have turned the game in our favour. The Lancaster game was certainly a game of two halves and perhaps a draw would have been a fair result. That was not to be, so we start again to get some points on the board against a Grantham side who beat many peoples title favourites, F C United. A crowd of 821 saw them win by the odd goal in five with a winner two minutes from time. The scorer of their first two goals was from new signing Craig Westcarr. We will remember him last season playing for Matlock, ending the season as the Gladiators’ top scorer. He will no doubt be one to watch, but he is only one of several new signings in the Grantham squad.

All the predictions appear to add up to potential thriller that could go either way, so let’s ensure the Shed end and yet again be the 12 man. See you all on Tuesday.

Games played on August 20^th this century

2001      Ilkeston                A             2-2         Southern League

2002      Ilkeston                H            2-0         Southern League

2005      Hyde                     A             3-1         Conference North

2011      Stocksbridge       A             0-1         Northern Premier League

2013      Barwell                H            2-3         Northern Premier League

2016      Frickley                H            3-2         Northern Premier League

Saturday 17th August and the new Bet Victor Northern Premier League season kicks off. That, therefore, means that summer is over. Yet again we start the season with an away match. The last time we started the season with a home win was season 2011/12 when FC United visited us in a Northern Premier fixture following our drop down from the Conference North. Technically we started 2016/17 at home to Barwell, but this was because the first game away to Ilkeston had been postponed due to their issues.

This pre-season has been quite a different one in that we knew the squad. In recent years we have had three or four players and a whole host of trialists, with team sheets being a veritable who’s who. There have only been a few new names to come to terms with, who include keeper, Lewis King, who having played for Mickleover is aware of our fans behind the goal. Also, from Mickleover is striker Evan Garnett. We have a new defender in Josh Burns, who for those who do not know is the brother of Dan Burns. I am not convinced they are brothers as Josh is not 7 foot tall. Possibly our marque signing this close season is Alex Ray Harvey who has played most of his football at a much higher level and should be an asset to the squad. His only fault is that he spent some time last season on loan to the side on the dark side of Cannock Chase.

Pre-season friendlies has seen us unbeaten winning 5 and drawing 2 with 25-4 goal difference. Remember you cannot use friendlies for true form as the games are put on to give players match practice, try out new formations. I remember on unbeaten pre-season followed by a first league win coming in October, so do not read too much into the games against Stafford Town and Lichfield, but the fat that all departments of the squad have been tested.

So, we start the season with a nice trip up the M6 along with all the holiday makers going to Blackpool for a game at Giant Axe, the home of Lancaster City. This was a regular journey back in the 70’s with this fixture contested for 9 seasons between 1970/01 and 1978/79 with us winning 4, drawing 2 and losing 3. The first and last games in that era saw Lancaster winning 1-0. Obviously after that run we moved up into the Non-league topflight and while we had our ups and downs and flirtation with Southern League, we did not meet up again till 2017/18 following Lancaster gaining promotion from Division 1. 2017/18 saw us draw 1-1 with a last-minute Robert Thompson-Brown penalty, and last season saw us draw 0-0, playing most of the game with 10 men.

I am not aware of any supporter’s coach going but I understand many will make it by car and train. The Lancaster railway station overlooks the ground, so if you fancy a couple of hours trainspotting you can also view a game of football as a bonus.