A horror show from Matlock saw them deservedly and soundly beaten at the windswept Horsfall Stadium on Saturday.
The feeble performance left manager Mark Atkins seething as it was probably the worst in his tenure. "We were poor at the back, poor up front, in fact we were poor all over the park. The players need to take a good long look at themselves for we were second best in every department."
The Matlock fans who braved the elements will have no arguments with that assessment.It was all too easy for Avenue to get a stranglehold on the game and terrible defending could have resulted in a more humiliating scoreline.
With Lee Featherstone injured, Adam Yates kept his place in a defence which saw Yates at right back, Scott Brough at left back, with Mark Haran returning to partner James Lukic in the middle. It was to be a homecoming to forget for Haran, who moved to Town from Bradford in the summer. Nathan Benger replaced Dene Cropper in attack in the other change from the extra time FA Cup defeat at Bury Town in midweek.
Matlock won the toss to kick with the gale force wind in the first half. It was just about the one thing they got right all afternoon.
The Gladiators predictably had much of the opening pressure but lacked the cutting edge to hurt Avenue. Home central defenders Simon Ainge and James Knowles were magnificent as they protected goalkeeper Steve Dickenson so well that Dickenson had little to do by way of serious saves.He held successive drives from Ross Hannah before Lukic headed a right wing corner too high. A cross from Scott Brough only needed a touch, but Matlock hadn't made the most of the conditions which meant that Bradford grew in confidence and stature as the half wore on.
By the interval the hosts were in cruise control having established a two goal gift wrapped lead. There was a touch of misfortune about the opener on 29 minutes which came about when Lukic was forced to concede a corner having blocked a goalbound shot from Chris Hall. GARETH DAVIES deflected the flag kick into his own net and Matlock were in trouble.
Only a fine save from Adam Sollitt, who splendidly tipped a Chris Stabb piledriver over the bar on 36 minutes kept the margin down to one goal. Then the dangerous Hall all too easily got the better of three half hearted Matlock challenges on the right. His cross flashed along the Town six yard box.
Danny Wood limped off to be replaced by Cropper as Matlock went 4-3-3 which meant that Avenue had space to dominate the midfield.To be losing by one goal at the interval, given the conditions, was serious, but to be two goals down was calamitous. The defending for that secondon the stroke of half time was nothing more than suicidal as Simon Baldry floated in a cross from the right and HALL had nobody within five yards of him as he headed clinically past Adam Sollitt.
A hammering looked odds on when within a minute of the restart HALL scored again, ghosting past Haran to push Stabb's cross from the right beyond the exposed Sollitt.
Matlock rallied to reduce the deficit in the 56th minute as Cropper and Benger combined well to feed skipper WARNE who drove past Dickenson from ten yards.
But Matlock always looked likely to concede again. Hall was agin left unattended to knock a cross from the right back from the back post and Matlock breathed a sigh of relief as Baldry's shot flew over the bar. Then Sollitt pulled off a stunning stop from Hall's crisp strike, but the reprieve would only be brief.
Matty James cut through the Town rearguard like a knife through butter only to see his shot deflected over. But the 68t minute corner was only partially cleared and man of the match ROB O'BRIEN shot low and hard from the edge of the box past Sollitt's whose view might have been impeded by bodies in front of him.
At least Ross Hannah hadn't given up the ghost and his persistence brought him reward with three minutes remaining as he turned and twisted in the Avenue penalty box before scoroing with a low drive into the bottom corner.
But Avenue had the last word as O'BRIEN crashed in a top quality half volley from twenty yards past the diving Sollitt and a miserable afternoon for Matlock had come to an end.
They could have no complaints with the outcome and there will need to be a lot of hard work on the training field in the week before next weekend's trip to King's Lynn.Matlock now find themselves in the bottom three and a relegation spot in an unbelievably tight division. A couple of wins could see them shoot up the table but with defending like at Bradford, clearly this will not happen.
The visiting support deserved a whole lot more and it is now up to the players to win back the fans' faith in them.
MATLOCK TOWN: Sollitt, Brough, Yates, King, Haran, Lukic, Warne, Davies (Algar 58), Benger (Thorpe 74), Hannah, Wood (Cropper 40). Other sub: Buxton.
REFEREE: A Greenwood--York. ATTENDANCE: 350. STAR MAN: Adam Sollitt.
