Scrappy win pleases Matlock boss Clayton
Matlock Town boss Adam Clayton said he was pleased to see his side eventually run out winners at Brighouse on Saturday despite making hard work of overcoming ten men.
Matlock took an early lead before Brighouse captain Harvey Booth was dismissed midway through the first-half and the hosts then levelled right on the interval.
It then took until the final quarter of the game for the Gladiators to score again and even then it was in the balance until Cameron Wilson scored the third in stoppage time.
But Clayton acknowledged that scrappy wins are just as important as glossy ones as his side moved back into second place in the NPL Division One East standings.
He said: “I’m really pleased with the win. Did I think we’d be able to come here and play the way we usually do? No, and we picked a team to suit the situation and play to the conditions, and for 44-and-a-half minutes I thought we were exceptional.
"We could have been three or four ahead in the first-half and were denied a penalty, then when Brighouse went to ten men it galvanised them a little bit, but up to their equaliser the players gave me what I wanted which was a physically strong and running performance.
"So I’m pleased with the win because looking at the list of places where we’ve failed, this was high up the list of where we could fail, and the lads showed a side today where they rolled their sleeves up, got hit by a blow in the 45th minute but came out again whilst it wasn’t nice, we managed to get the goal and win the game.”
Matlock were then due to host Bridlington Town on Tuesday night, after this week’s Mercury went to press, that being a rearranged game having been postponed last month.
They then welcome Blyth Spartans to the Proctor Cars Stadium on Saturday, who whilst struggling near the bottom, impressively beat Grimsby Borough 4-0 at home last weekend.
Next Tuesday, another rearranged game takes place as Matlock play their third home game in seven days against Newton Aycliffe.
Clayton added: “We went Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday for a good spell earlier in the season and I think we won seven or eight games in a row, so playing that many games with our squad when so many quality players are available makes us a different animal, so we go into these games healthy, fit, and off the back of two wins now.”