Back to the drawing board for duo

Matlock Town’s joint bosses Craig Hopkins and Glenn Kirkwood are heading back to the drawing board after last week’s big win at Farsley Celtic proved to be false dawn for the Gladiators in the EVO-STIK League, writes Ian Richardson.

Any hopes they harboured of the 2-1 win at play-off hopefuls sparking a turnaround in fortunes were dashed by Saturday’s 2-0 reverse at Stafford Rangers and a demoralising 3-1 exit from the Integro League on Tuesday night at the hands of Hednesford Town at the DCJ Group Insurance Arena.

As well as seeing the Gladiators revert to form by gifting both Stafford Rangers and Hednesford Town all of their goals in two more defeats, the duo are also facing a lengthening injury list ahead of Saturday’s visit from Lancaster City and actively considering bringing in yet more players.

Ahead of training on Thursday night, Hopkins said: “On Saturday we played exactly the same team that had done so well at Farsley yet the two performances were like chalk and cheese. After that great performance the one at Stafford was as flat as a pancake, sometimes we’re lost for words, it was really poor on Saturday.

Dynamic duo: Glenn Kirkwood and Craig Hopkins

Dynamic duo: Glenn Kirkwood and Craig Hopkins

“There may have been a very small element of the Farsley game taking something out of them but that’s really no excuse, we lacked any energy and spark and gave away two really bad goals. Dwayne (Wiley) was a little unfortunate for the second one as his clearance hit their lad on the shin and went in, but it was an unacceptable performance.”

To add to their woes, Matlock look like being without five of their first team squad for the weekend. Captain Adam Yates looks like he might be out for some time after suffering a broken nose and blacked eyes in a first half clash on Saturday and missing the Hednesford game.
Jake Green pulled out of the warm-up on Tuesday with a damaged groin while Curtis Morrison pulled a hamstring and Jamie Jackson twisted an ankle. Joe Doyle Charles is suspended and completes his ban this weekend.

“We’ll need to take stock of who we’ve got available for Saturday at Thursday’s training session when we’ll also need to work hard on our defensive game,” admitted Hopkins. “We’ll probably have to get another couple of players in. We’re still talking to players, people ask why loan players are coming in.

“The answer is that they’re the ones more readily available, a lot of players simply don’t want to move at this stage of the season. We talk to them and the standard answer is speak to us in the summer. There’s players at league clubs we’ve been excited about then it’s all gone dead,.”
Hopkins admits the last two defeats have highlighted an urgent need for more of a physical presence in their side."

He added: “Stafford were a lot stronger than us and you look at Hednesford who’ve got a big strong squad. We need to be much better defensively, more compact, a little more aggressive and a little bit more nasty. We’ve given Hednesford all three of their goals, the third one was a calamity after a lack of communication for the second one.

“We’d done alright in the first half, we’d scored a great goal and might have got something from two or three great balls flying across their penalty box. So we’ll have to take the positives from that. Seven days earlier we were superb, but a few lads need to be braver and stronger, be ready for the battle, be prepared to fight their way out of this poor patch.”

Images courtesy of @Matlock_TownFC/Twitter

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