Law – ​Lack of cutting edge is the difference for Gladiators

​The Gladiators largely dominated possession and created some good openings but couldn’t seriously trouble Whitby keeper Shane Bland, while the visitors had two clear chances and scored them both in the first-half to seal the points.

And Law says it again became clear where the Gladiators are lacking.

He said: “I think there was really positive play out there – we started on the front foot, tried to play high up the pitch and engage and created some really good chances.

"But we failed to get the goal that we needed and then got hit by the sucker punch which was a really poor goal as Joe West let his man get across him and we’re one down.

"We recovered and dominated again but then conceded another really poor goal.

"Credit to the players, I thought we played some good stuff again in the second-half – the defenders defended well and the midfield three were excellent, but again we lacked that cutting edge and someone to put the ball in the net.

"People don’t want to hear excuses, people want results, but we are where we are and it’s work in progress. Whitby had two chances and took them both, we probably had three or four good ones and didn’t take any, although we hit the post and had another one that the lads were adamant saw the ball pulled back from over the line by the goalkeeper in a scramble.

"We’re short of two or three players in certain areas that will make a difference but I’ve said to the players that they have to learn how to win games, dig in when it matters, make it ugly if you have to and then take your chances when they come.”

Saturday had seen Matlock earn a 0-0 draw at newly-promoted Prescot Cables, that despite having had midfielder Sam Essien sent off after 36 minutes.

The Gladiators soaked up plenty of pressure from the hosts, ultimately keeping them out to take a point and a clean sheet.

Law said: “It was a tough game, obviously made tougher by the sending off but credit to the players. We played about an hour with ten men and I can only applaud them for it.

"We’ve got to show more quality at times but the important thing today was that after going down to ten men we didn’t get beaten.

"I said to Fozzy [Martin Foster – assistant manager] that I thought we should be alright as we’d done a lot of defending against teams like Chesterfield, Derby and Mansfield in pre-season but credit to them because it’s hard against ten men, although taking nothing away from the opposition if we’d been playing against top end opposition we might have been in more trouble.”

On the red card for Essien, Law added: “It was a reckless tackle, he’s let his teammates down and it can’t happen but my first reaction was that it was a yellow. Both players went for the ball and they were saying Sam went in a bit high but I really can’t comment until I’ve seen it.”

Matlock subsequently appealed the red card and are now awaiting further news.