Two goals in two minutes help Matlock to fifth straight league win
Matlock Town made it five league wins in a row on Tuesday night with a 2-1 success at Bridlington Town.
That run of success has now included three long midweek away trips that have been successful, and the Gladiators are now up to second in the NPL Division One East table, six points behind leaders Bradford (Park Avenue) but with three games in hand.
Tuesday’s game was far from a classic, the goals scored being the only major threats on goal for either side as both goalkeepers had relatively quiet evenings.
But given Bridlington were unbeaten prior to this match and had only conceded three goals, the win for Matlock was all the more impressive.
It was the home side who took the lead on 19 minutes, as a cross from the right found the head of former Matlock man Jake Day and he headed home powerfully.
Matlock had only seen half chances for Jeremie Milambo twice miss the target up to this point but they got themselves level in style on 37 minutes as the ball broke to Cameron Wilson 25 yards out and his strike arrowed into the top corner.
Just over a minute later, the Gladiators were in front. A Bridlington defender gave the ball away to Elliott some 30-35 yards out and the stand-in striker quickly spotted the keeper off his line and chipped a perfect finish.
Bridlington thought they had equalised not long after half-time when Michael Coulson found the net after Jake Oram had parried a long range strike away, but the assistant referee flagged for offside.
Kiyani Clayton’s driven effort was deflected into the goalkeeper’s hands on the hour mark and skipper Liam Ravenhill also saw an effort go close, but that was about as much of a threat as either side would produce for the remainder of the encounter as Bridlington’s possession came to nothing and Matlock’s game management came to the fore to see things out.