Boss Mark Hume unimpressed with Matlock Town's win over Hyde United

Matlock town v Ashton united. Matlock manager Mark Hume.

The Gladiators clocked up their third win in four against a Hyde side seeking their first win since 26th October.

Matlock fell behind before a 44th minute equaliser from Laurie Wilson and a bizarre 77th minute clincher from Niall McManus earned the Gladiators maximum points.

“I don’t think we could have been worse in the first half, we were poor, not at the races,” said Hume.

”There’s no excuses, the three weeks off doesn’t come into it, we were soft, we were sloppy so I had to make changes at half-time to toughen us up. Against a more physical side we’d have been really struggling.”

Hume left all three of his new signings, Andy Gascoigne, Tom Burgin and Jake Orrell on the bench but all figured as the contest developed with Gascoigne and Burgin playing key roles.

Quick thinking by Gascoigne led to the winner as his long range lob bounced down off the crossbar and fell to McManus to poke home, while Burgin was brought on at the interval in a tactical switch by Hume who pushed Laurie Wilson further forward.

“We brought Tom on to beef us up at the back and Laurie went into midfield to give us more bite and control in there,” added Hume.

“I told the lads I wasn’t happy at half-time, getting to half-time at 1-1 didn’t cloud my judgement, yes we’d had chances, but we needed to do a whole lot more, hopefully the lads will have learned something from Saturday.

“I know we’ve played ten times better and come away with nothing so winning the game was a positive I suppose.”

Matlock have potentially one of their most difficult tests of the season on Saturday at promotion-chasing Ashton United, who had won eleven, drawn one and lost only one of their previous 13 league matches prior to their trip to Whitby Town on Wednesday night.

Hume said: “They’re a very good side, strong and well organised and one thing’s for sure we can’t afford to play like we did against Hyde.

“Everyone’s got to be on top of their game, even if we’d won 5-0 last Saturday it wouldn’t change the way I feel we’ve got to perform this weekend.”

Striker Jack Siddall has moved temporarily to NCEL Premier Division Armthorpe Welfare for some regular first team football, which Hume says will help his development.