Mark Hume urges Matlock Town players to keep season from going flat

Matlock Town boss Mark Hume is urging his uplayers to make sure their season does not go flat after their 3-0 defeat at Darlington 1883 on Tuesday night.
Matlock town v Ashton united. Matlock manager Mark Hume.Matlock town v Ashton united. Matlock manager Mark Hume.
Matlock town v Ashton united. Matlock manager Mark Hume.

In spite of the 3-0 margin Town were second best but not disgraced at Bishop Auckland’s Heritage Park.

Having drawn at other high riding clubs in Ashton United, Salford City and Nantwich, hopes were high of the mid-table Gladiators could spring another surprise with a good result.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But again in truth the Quakers were different a different quality.

Despite the defeat, Hume admitted he could take some positives from the match,

“We weren’t overly that bad as a team, it was more a case of Darlington adapting better to the conditions and we gave them a helping hand by conceding a silly set piece from which they eventually scored,” he said.

“The first half wasn’t a great spectacle, it was two teams trying to play the conditions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We missed a great chance at 1-0, had we taken it things could have been interesting.

“For all Niall’s hard work and brilliance, he really needs to start taking more chances, he’s got a good goals tally already but if he’d scored half of those he’s missed he’d be right up there with the leading scorers in the league. Then they’ve gone and scored a worldy.”

Hume was also quick to priase title-chasing Darlington.

He added: “They’re obviously going to be in the mix at the end of the season, there’s no doubt about that.

“We’ve gone to places like Nantwich and Salford and given them a really good game, we did our best here, we didn’t deserve the 3-0, it makes it look worse than it really was.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I’m hard to please, I really don’t like losing but we’ll take the positives from the game and move on.

“I expect us to do well, we’ve got to put together another run, February’s an important month for us and we need to keep on pressing, the season mustn’t peter out.”

Next for the Gladiators is a trip to struggling Marine on Saturday before, on Tuesday, they host Mickleover Sports in the rearrangement of last Saturday’s postponed fixture due to the Autoworld Arena being flooded, with Marine coming to town on Saturday week in a quick return.

“We can’t and mustn’t take anything for granted against Marine and Mickleover just because they are below us, we must be looking to get something from all of these games, we’re playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday quite regularly now and we’ve got to make it count,” added Hume.