Law's keen to get Matlock on the ball after tough Derby County and Chesterfield friendlies
Nicky Law says he’s keen to see his Matlock Town players come up against more equally-matched opposition after two tough opening pre-season friendlies.
A penalty shoot-out win over Chesterfield got their summer’s football under way and then last Friday night, a strong Derby County outfit ran out 3-0 winners at the Proctor Cars Stadium.
And although Law was able to take plenty of positives from both games, he’s now looking forward to seeing how his players do when they won’t have to spend the majority of games defending.
He said: “We knew Friday’s game would be another game where we’d spend a lot of time without the ball and with no disrespect to Chesterfield, Derby was another huge jump up in terms of the way they moved the ball, their own movement and attitude made it tough for us.
"But credit to our lads, they dug in and it’s all about fitness and we can now start to look at improving on certain things when we come up against teams that are closer to us in the sense of standards.
"Lots of good defensive work has been done in these games and the lads have been really positive.
"We know we’ve got to be better on transition but it’s really tough when you’ve been playing against teams like we have so far.
"We’ll now play teams like Alfreton and Buxton, plus Cleethorpes from the league below, all of whom are just one step above or below us rather than there being a big gap.
"So we can judge ourselves a bit better when we've got the ball as we've got to do better on that front and that’s our next step really.
"These first two games were purely about fitness, and now we go into a few games where we’ll aim to be that bit more competitive.”
On personnel, Law has continued to assess some trialists that have featured in the games so far, with at least one set to sign a deal with the Gladiators to be confirmed in the near future.
He added: “It’s tough for the trialists coming in because whereas our boys have been training, these other guys haven’t had a club so aren’t as up to speed but they deserve credit for coming in and really giving it a go.”
The next friendly will be on Tuesday night (23rd), when Matlock go to Buxton.