Carruthers delighted as Matlock Town win twice in four days

A 2-0 victory at Liversedge was followed by a crucial 3-2 verdict in a six-pointer battle with Marine at the Proctor Cars Stadium on Tuesday night in a match where Matlock might just have uncovered a gem and a star for the future.

Seventeen-year-old Archie White was given a debut and everyone who attended left the stadium marvelling at a scintillating first performance which could easily have brought him a brace of goals to add to his assist for Karl Demidh’s second-half winner.

“Archie White was outstanding,” said Carruthers.

“He could have got himself a couple of goals and he’s been showing form like that in training so I’d got no hesitation in putting him in. What a performance, and the bonus was that for such a young lad, he’s managed to last the 90 minutes comfortably. Mark my words, this lad’s going to be a very good player for this football club.”

Carruthers was pleased with the win at Liversedge which was their first in six outings.

He said: “It was a tough game up there in difficult conditions, we said to the lads that we’d dropped our standards at Whitby and Marske and we needed a reaction and we got one, we dug in when we needed to, had a bit of luck at 1-0 before getting the vital second goal.”

But the Marine performance pleased Carruthers just as much as the majority of the 607 crowd in a thriller of a game. Marine had a three-point lead over Matlock prior to kick off. It was a game neither side could afford to lose but Matlock could have virtually written off their hopes with anything less than a victory.

He said: “It was a magnificent effort against Marine, we said to the lads before Saturday, can we achieve the impossible? In football you never know, so we said let’s keep the season alive, let’s try to win as many games as we can and remain unbeaten and so far we’ve done that.

"The game was great for the neutral and what pleased me the most is that we found a way to win that now puts us level on points with Marine. It was also great to see our two forwards Reece Styche and Karl Demidh both on the scoresheet.”

Attention now turns to the Easter weekend which sees the Gladiators take on Atherton Colleries at the Proctor Cars Stadium on Saturday before making the trip down the A6 on Monday afternoon to face a Belper Town side whose relegation was confirmed on Tuesday night by losing at home to fellow strugglers Marske United.

Carruthers said: “These two games might look okay for us on paper but as we know there’s no easy games in this league and we need to be up for them both 100 per cent. If we show the same attitude as in the past couple of games then we can beat anybody. The objective has to be to try and get another win on Saturday and move on from there.”

Matlock will of course be keeping a close eye on the results of fellow play-off contenders and it is likely that Matlock will be battling for a fifth-place finish come April 22. Gainsborough Trinity and Hyde United in fifth and sixth spot have 62 points, four more than Marine and the Gladiators.

The Easter fixtures see Marine travelling to Marske on Good Friday before hosting Warrington Town on Easter Monday while Gainsborough are at Lancaster and then at home to Liveredge. Hyde host Morpeth before having a local derby at Stalybridge Celtic.

Meanwhile, Carruthers could not hide his delight that the crowd-funding appeal to raise £6,000 to help fund Connor Dimaio’s career saving ACL reconstruction operation reached its target within three days of it being launched. Included in the donations was £1,000 from Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, a team mate of Dimaio’s at both Sheffield United and Chesterfield.

He said: “I’m absolutely delighted with the response from the whole footballing world and what a gesture from Aaron Ramsdale to support Connor so well. Connor’s a great lad, it was great to see him at the game on Saturday with his family and so many people went up to talk to him, I can’t thank everyone who has donated and supported Connor in his hour of need enough.”

Dimaio’s operation has been scheduled for Wednesday, 26 April and he will then face a recovery period of ten to 12 months.

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