Matlock Town captain faces waiting game to hit 500 game milestone

The Matlock Town skipper was set to celebrate his 500th Matlock Town appearance in the home game on 17th March against Ashton United.

But the Covid-19 outbreak has put that milestone on hold and, with results and players appearances now having been expunged from the records, Yates is back where he started on 469 first team appearances.

Yates backs FA decision

Boss wants to hit the ground running

“When the Covid-19 situation arose, it was in the back of my mind that I might not make my 500th appearance this season,” Yates admitted.

“Peoples’ safety and lives are more important, I just wanted people to stay safe.

“That day will come at some point, as a club we wouldn’t want people coming when it’s not safe to do so and the league eventually cancelled the rest of the season.

“I wasn’t sure whether the appearances I made last year would count but it looks like appearances get expunged as well, it’s not ideal, it’s not great.

“Lads have scored some good goals so it’s hard to take, but no-one expected the situation the world finds itself in at the moment.”

Yates is now keen to see some consistency at the club.

He added: “We’ve had a few difficult years so it would be nice to see some consistency.

“Managers have come and gone and we’ve now got Paul(Phillips) who’ll hopefully be able to bring in the players he needs to go with the ones we have,

“We need the players to pull together and play for the manager and our great fans and people that work so hard behind the scenes.”

The 30 years old defender has become one of the most popular players to have worn a Matlock shirt in his eleven seasons at Causeway Lane.

He was signed by Mark Atkins who was suitably impressed by a tremendous performance from Yates for Shirebrook Town in the 2008/09 Derbyshire Senior Cup semi final.

Since then countless accolades have come his way and he has been voted as the fans’ player of the season on no fewer than four occasions, 2012/13, 2015/16.2017/18 and 2018/19.

He has become Mr Matlock Town, a figurehead at the Proctor Cars Stadium, but typically put his personal disappointment to one side as the world battles against a killer virus.

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