Manager Nicky Law pulled no punches after Matlock Town were soundly beaten by lower division Cleethorpes Town in Tuesday night’s pre season friendly.
The North Lincolnshire visitors were 3-1 winners, coming from behind after Harry Wood had opened the scoring on 10 minutes to reply through Brad Dockerty on 13, Adam Haw on 45 and Ben Middleton two minutes from the end.
“We were second best all over and there’s no excuse for that” , a theme which ran throughout his post match assessment.
The Cleethorpes clash was the second of tests against sides closer to Matlock’s level after the scoreless draw with Chesterfield, the 3-0 defeat by Derby County and the 1-0 loss at Buxton. Matlock had also drawn 1-1 with a Barnsley X1 in a behind closed doors encounter.
Sadly for the Gladiators the scheduled trip to Sheffield FC last Saturday was called off due to Sheffield having pitch issues leaving Matlock to spend more time on the training pitch.
Law would probably have expected and wanted his side to dominate in the Cleethorpes match but the visitors were excellent throughout and thoroughly deserving of their 3-1 win.
“Take nothing away from them (Cleethorpes) they were good, they were better than us absolutely. You have to earn the right to play football and we didn’t compete well enough.
We lost first second third and on occasions fourth ball and when we did get the ball back we didn’t do enough with it., we were too one dimensional. We were poor, from one to eleven and whoever came on.”
Alarm bells were undoubtedly clanging on the terraces with the new season being just eleven days away when Matlock travel to Prescot Cables. So is Law concerned after Tuesday’s defeat?
“Do we need to panic, no, we’re still in pre-season, that’s probably identified more areas and things we need to work on and we’ll start doing that on Thursday to take into the next game.
I’ve just told the players that if that was a tough game it’ll be tougher again on Saturday (Matlock travel to National League North Alfreton Town). We got a mixed pre season, we play three league teams who don’t probably play with the intensity of and ruggedness like Cleethorpes. We said beforehand that this will be the toughest game we’ve had this pre season, don’t underestimate it and whether we did I don’t know, We came unstuck and werewell and truly beaten., it was nowhere near good enough and if we take that mindset into the league then they’re going to be tough games for us.”
Matlock fielded 18 years old Rogan Ravenhill in goal on Tuesday and he joins the Gladiators on loan from Barnsley.
“He couldn’t be faulted for any of the goals. He’s highly thought of at Barnsley and I’m delighted to have him” Law continued.
Saturday’s game at the Impact Arena will see The Reds and the Gladiators contest the Jordan Sinnott Cup, the former Bradford City and Chesterfield midfielder having played for both Alfreton and Matlock before his untimely death in 2020.
Matlock finish off their pre season programme on Tuesday against Mansfield Town when Nigel Clough sends a first team squad to the Proctor Cars Stadium.
IAN RICHARDSON 31.07.24