Matlock Town v Worksop Town - UniBond League Premier Division

Kevin was beginning to grow increasingly concerned about his recurring

hallucinations that he was being stalked by Jimmy Saville.

Now then, now then.

Nice view of Ryber Castle in the background.

Wednesday 7th April 2010. UniBond League Premier Division
At Causeway Lane, Matlock (AKA the Geoquip Stadium)

Matlock Town (1) 4 (King 2, Joynes 77, 92, Hannah 81 pen)
Worksop Town (3) 3 (Sanasay 4, 29, 38 pen)

Admission £7. Programme £1.50 .Attendance 270
Hmm, it is very difficult to draw any positives out of this game from a Worksop perspective, much as I've tried, even though they had powered into a 3-1 half time lead after having gone behind inside the first two minutes.
With only 13 minutes still on the clock they were holding on to that lead too, but still, notwithstanding those mathematics, at the end of 90 plus minutes both teams had got what they deserved out of the game.
Ouch!
Worksop had the better of the first 45 minutes, Matlock had the best of the last 48!

Pre match stretching, note the old clubhouse side of the
ground under redevelopment in the background

Inside the first two minutes Liam King neatly lobbed the ball over Jon Kennedy to put Matlock Town in front. He took his chance well and the Gladiators, on the back of a five game unbeaten run, had ominously thrown down the gauntlet and it was now up to the Tigers to prove they were up to the challenge.
They were!
Well, for the remainder of the first half and some of the second at least.

A minutes silence prior to kick off in honour of former MTFC forward Gordon Duggins

Worksop were level on four minutes.
Ben Tomlinson had already gone close to responding immediately, when former Tigers goalkeeper Adam Sollitt ran from his line to deal with a clearance, but completely miss kicked the ball straight to Kevin Sanasay who gratefully pumped it back over Sollitt into the unguarded net.
Sanasay almost added a second when Jackson lofted the ball over for him to hit on the volley, but the shot fell inches wide.
A Jackson/Sanasay combination led to Worksop's second goal, as Jackson's corner bobbled it's way out to towards the edge of the box for Sanasay to smash the ball home.
It looked to me as though Jamie Jackson had scuffed the corner and the chance was going to go begging, but for once fortune decided to shine on the Tigers this season.
Temporarily anyway.
Adam Sollitt dropped a cross from Ryan Mallon in front of his goal, Ben Tomlinson pounced to take advantage and all the keeper could do to prevent him from scoring was to pull Ben down.
Sollitt received a yellow card (and a fair bit of vocal 'encouragement' from the Worksop fans), Sanasay smashed home the spot kick to record his hat trick on 38 minutes.
Before the break, niggled by being behind, Ross Hannah and Nathan Joynes, Matlock's striking duo were both booked. Hannah for going in late on Jon Kennedy after he had hold of the ball and Joynes for a disgusting lunge at Ryan Mallon.
Joynes offence was as bad a 'challenge' as I have seen committed by any player all season and Mallon is only just recovering match fitness following a recent injury too.
Joynes should have walked for that foul, but only received a yellow card.
Peter Rinkcavage, the Tigers manager was incensed and let the referee know in no uncertain terms, for which he was spoken to and warned by the official.
Peter Rinkcavage, the Tigers manager was still incensed and continued to let the referee know in no uncertain terms ... and he was dismissed from his dug out and told to go and sit in the ... err, to go and stand on the building site behind the dug out!
Quote ... "Kinnel lads. You can get away with a booking for a cynical foul like that, but get sent off for talking to the ref, that's got to be wrong!" ... it was a Matlock fan walking past the Tigers supporters at half time who expressed that opinion by the way.
So the Tigers went in 3-1 ahead at half time and with the Matlock players clearly rattled, they should have come out all guns blazing in the second half and finished them off.
Hmm, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing.
Worksop seemed to sit back in the second half and let Matlock come at them, or the home side had been given orders to up their work rate several notches (or both), which is just what they did do ... eventually.
On a rare second half attacking visit into the home sides penalty area, Shiels' looping header hit the cross bar, if that had have gone in it would have been game over.
But Matlock were now starting to mount several dangerous looking attacks ... boosted by their reprieve they were more than happy to accept Worksop's perceived invitation to 'come and have a go' and they rolled up their sleeves and went for it.
Adam Yates in particular was causing the Tigers loads of problems with his forward runs. Inevitably he was in the thick of the action as the ball fell to Joynes in the box and Matlock's number nine (who probably shouldn't even still have been on the pitch) shot past Kennedy to make the score 2-3.
Four minutes later Yates burst through again and was fouled in the box. Ross Hannah fired home the resulting penalty for the equaliser.
On 90 minutes, Liam King smashed a shot towards the top corner of the net, it looked like the winning goal all the way, but Jon Kennedy pulled off an outstanding save to tip the ball over.
And it looked as though the Worksop keeper had just salvaged a point from a game where his side could and would have had all three if they had just kept that first half momentum going.
Deep into injury time Dene Cropper knocked a cross down into the path of Nathan Joynes, who couldn't miss the target from that sort of range.
He didn't.
From being 3-1 down with just 13 minutes remaining, Matlock had won the game now and it was too late for Worksop to do anything about it.
If only the Tigers had turned the screw when the game was there for the taking and Matlock were on the ropes it could have been a very different story, but it wasn't to be ... and the policy adopted by the players in the second half of trying to contain Matlock and preserve the two goal lead had well and truly backfired.
At least that's how it looked through my uneducated eyes from where I was stood.
Though it must be said that Matlock had raised their game considerably after the break and deserve credit for the way they kept going right until the very end.
Thankfully Ossett Town lost 4-1 to Marine tonight, which means with five games to go Worksop are still five points ahead of that final relegation place.
Sunday's game against Nottinghamshire rivals and former landlords Hucknall Town is now even more important.
The remainder of the season will be no place for the faint hearted or squeamish.