Players hailed for making their point

Matlock Town's assistant manager Scott Maxfield has hailed the resilience of the Gladiators who brought a point home from high-flying Nantwich Town in the EVO-STIK Northern Premier League's top flight on Tuesday night, writes Ian Richardson.

But manager Mark Hume's number two still had a word of caution for the club's battlers after the 2-2 draw at the Weaver Stadium.

Maxfield warned: "It'll only prove to be a very good point if we do the business on Saturday."

Struggling Stamford are next up at the Autoworld Arena this weekend and Maxfield wants to see a repeat of the Nantwich performance against the Daniels after their deserved draw in Cheshire.

He said: "We'd have settled for the point before we went, but it's not much good to us working so hard to get the point we deserved at Nantwich if we can't back it up against Stamford.

"Tuesday was pleasing especially after being two nil down in about five or six minutes. The lads fought tremendously hard and the character they showed told us a lot about the kind of lads we have at the club."

Singling out the industry of Liam Needham for his "superb" performance in closing down the midfield and forcing the Dabbers into making misplaced and hurried passes, he said: "Liam Needham was superb, he set the tempo with his workrate, but so was everyone else and we need to replicate that on Saturday and in future matches."

Maxfield was also happy that their result at Nantwich had also ended a losing run away from home in the league after four successive defeats at Skelmersdale United, Grantham Town, Mickleover Sports and Halesowen Town.

He added: "I think away from home our concentration levels haven't been what they should be, you can't legislate for individual errors like those last Saturday and that's something Mark and me will have to address if we're to get the club where we want them to be and finish as high as we can."

Follow us: @evostikleague on Twitter | The NPL group on Facebook by clicking here: www.facebook.com/groups/TheNPL/

Where next?

New firm joins family Fans of Grantham Town can look forward to enjoying their matchdays in an even cleaner environment after the EVO-STIK Northern Premier League club's officials secured their latest business partners.
Tuesday's Premier Division action review Darlington 1883 moved to the top of the EVIO-STIK Northern Premier League's Premier Division table on Tuesday night after winning 2-1 at Hurst Cross against Ashton United, writes Pitchero's Steve Whitney.

Match centre

Northern Premier League - Premier
Northern Premier League - East
Northern Premier League - Midlands
Northern Premier League - West

Latest photos

The Pitching In Northern Premier League newsletter

Keep up-to-date with our exclusive email newsletters.

Subscribe