Matlock Town chiefs call on town to turn out in big numbers for Stalybridge Celtic visit

The attendance for last Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Bamber Bridge dipped below 400 for a Saturday home fixture for the first time this season with 338 paying punters showing up.

Both Derby County and Chesterfield were at home and rain fell just when fans would be considering whether or not to go to the game.

This Saturday though is an international break and although the Spireites are again at home, the Rams are idle so Wright and Frecklington are hoping for an attendance at least pushing towards the 500 mark.

Matlock have scored 20 goals in their last five home league and cup outings.

“The team are playing entertaining football, scoring goals and have moved rapidly up the table so my message to local fans and particularly anyone who might have moved into the area and not been to the Proctor Cars Stadium before is to come down and see what we’re about,” said Wright. “If recent games are anything to go on, I’m sure you’ll not be disappointed. I’d like to think we can aim towards 500 against Stalybridge who are a good side so it should be an entertaining afternoon’s football.”

Frecklington, who has often praised the Matlock support since arriving in September, backed his chairman’s thoughts.

“Hopefully we can get a really good gate on Saturday to back the boys and if we could get 500 it would be brilliant,” he said.

“There were probably very good reasons why the crowd was down a bit on Saturday but those that couldn’t make it missed out on a very good game.

“We want to make it ten unbeaten and we need the town to get behind us and there’s no better time to do so than on Saturday. We’re not the finished article yet but we feel we can really push on and make the town proud of its football team again.”

Frecklington said the narrow victory against Bamber Bridge was the most satisfying result to date in his tenure.

“It was the most satisfying in terms of the number of games we’ve had to play recently with a good run of Saturday and midweek fixtures and having the amount of injuries we’ve had in the last few weeks,” he added.

“Continuity with the run we were on got us through. We had a sloppy start but we have a habit of scoring and then scoring quickly again so after the opening 15 minutes I was very pleased with us.

“We could have put the game to bed in the second half but Bamber Bridge got one back and then gave us a really hard game.

“Bamber Bridge will cause teams problems so it was a great win for us. Football’s a game of fine margins, had Craig King’s shot gone in instead of rebounding off the bar it would have been 3-0 and a different story but 2-0 is an unpredictable scoreline in this league, the next goal is crucial. Bamber Bridge hadn’t really carved us open but at 2-1 it got a little nervy so we had to show great grit and determination to see us home.”