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