Matlock Town 0 v Derby County 1 - PSF

Thursday 3rd July 2014
Pre Season Friendly
at the Autoworld Arena, Causeway Lane
Matlock Town (0) 0
Derby County (1) 1
Craig Forsyth 42
Admission £9. Programme £2. Attendance 1477
Man of the match - Jon Kennedy

Matlock Town:
Jon Kennedy, Michael Harcourt, Oscar Radford, David Haggerty, Adam Yates, Liam Needham, James Ashmore, Daryle Thomas, Danny Holland, Matt Andrews.
Subs - Corey Gregory, Matt Leese, Lavelle White
Probable, just about accurate, Matlock line up, assembled via an inaccurate teamsheet, recognising a few players, eavesdropping on a few "who's he?" type conversations ... and some complete guesswork.

Derby County:
First Half:
Roos, Freeman, Forsyth, Bryson, Buxton, O’Brien, Coutts, Allan, Martin, Ward, Russell.
Subs - Santos, Thomas
Second Half:
Mitchell, T Naylor, L Naylor, Hanson, Rawson, Whitbread, Shariff, Lowe, Sammon, Bunjaku, Bennett.
Subs - Santos, Thomas

A night on which an Evo-Stik League Premier Division side gave a Championship team a bloody good game of it and lost out to just a solitary goal, scored towards the end of the first half, when the Rams left back Craig Forsyth, cut in from the wing, played a one-two and thumped the ball past tonight's man of the match, Jon Kennedy, in the Gladiators goal.

Kennedy deserves a special mention, because the visitors might have added a couple more goals to their tally, especially in the second half, if it wasn't for the popular and time served keeper's acrobatics.

The Derby fans were in high spirits and good voice all night, without a hint of any bad behaviour, despite the smoke bombs and pyrotechnics display behind the goal ... though the smoky appearance of the above picture could actually have been created by my overheating brake cable, after a particularly daring overtaking manoeuvre on one of the steep hills one has to negotiate on the A632 ascent/descent into Matlock from the East.
2014-15 is open for business and up and running again. Phew! It's been almost five weeks since my final game of last season.
There have been some really dark moments along the way, but I've just about made it through to the other side.

Below, brief match highlights as shown on MTFC TV, Matlock Town's You Tube channel.

It's a shame they didn't capture a few of Jon Kennedy's best moments.

There is a different highlights video on Derby County's website, but you have to be a paid up subscriber to view it, bugger that!