Matlock pulled the cat out of the bag to overturn a two goal deficit and record a marvellous victory in a drama filled finale at Causeway Lane last Wednesday.
The Tigers looked odds on winners with thirteen minutes left, but the Gladiators somehow found both the mental and physical strength to pull through. Quite simply manager Mark Atkins has a bunch of players who will battle through to the very end.
Mark Haran replaced the injured Lee Featherstone in the one change to the starting line up which drew at Buxton just two days earlier. In contrast, Worksop were fresh coming into the already twice postponed fixture, having not played for eleven days. Former Gladiators Matty Thorpe and Jamie Jackson were both named to face their old club.
Matlock made a dream start as LIAM KING lifted a superb twenty yarder over goalkeeper Jon Kennedy in only the 2nd minute. But then the wheels fell off and Adam Sollitt, facing one of his former clubs, suffered a night he would rather forget.
In the very next minute Ben Tomlinson had shot inches over but on 4 minutes, Sollitt's poorly struck clearance fell to KEVIN SANASAY some twenty yards out, who returned the ball into the vacant net for the first of his hat-trick.
Sanasay was proving to be a handful and Jackson's hopeful hoisted pass was met by the former Bradford City striker on the volley, but his great attempt dropped wide.
Ross Hannah was played clear but Kennedy saw the danger quickly and smartly nicked the ball as Town's leading marksman was about to shoot. Kennedy then held a well struck effort from Ben Algar before the Tigers forced their way in front in the 29th minute.
Jackson's right wing corner was weakly hit but somehow it found SANASAY free some fifteen yards out and he smacked his shot fiercely past Sollitt wit Matlock's defending leaving much to be desired.
Then nine minutes later Matlock were in deeper trouble as Sollitt allowed a Ryan Mallon cross to slither out of his grasp. Tomlinson was on to the error in a flash but Sollitt brought him down to concede a penalty and earn a yellow card. SANASAY did the rest sending the unhappy home goalkeeper the wrong way.
Hannah and Nathan Joynes were both booked for late challenges on Kennedy and Scott Lowe respectively. Visiting manager Peter Rinkcavage was incensed that Joynes was not sent off and after making his opinion too vociferously to referee Kevin Hayward, he was ordered from the dug out.
Nathan Benger, doubtful beforehand, was replaced by Dene Cropper at the interval, but there was little sign of the drama to unfold early on. Cropper found space on the right but his well intended cross would not fall for Hannah.
Sanasay nearly grabbed a fourth only to see his header strike the bar in the 71st minute. This would prove to be a turning point.
Suddenly finding an extra gear Matlock stormed forward. Initially, their final pass was their undoing, and although at first Worksop appeared to be dealing comfortably with Matlock's questions, the feeling was that if Matlock could find one goal, they might well add to it.
And so it proved. Adam Yates, whose dashes down the right were forcing Worksop to defend deeper and deeper, burst forward to meet a cross from the opposite flank and plant a firm header against a post. But Worksop fell asleep as the ball fell to JOYNES who had time to line up a crisp half volley which flew past Kennedy in the 77th minute.
Game on! Yates was involved again just four minutes later as Mallon tripped him to give away the second spot kick of the game. Up stepped HANNAH who sent Kennedy diving in the opposite direction to notch his 33rd goal of a personally brilliant season.
Now Matlock were rampant. Lukic, up from the back, crossed from the right and Joynes, steaming in at the far post was an ace away from converting. Worksop's defence had fallen to pieces and Cropper nearly took advantage of a mix up, but Kennedy was down to his left to push aside his shot. In the very next breath, the ball was cleared only as far as King on the edge of the box. His rising shot had goal written all over it until Kennedy somehow sprung off to his right to astonishingly fingertip over the bar.
Urged on by the home fans, Matlock completed their terrific comeback two minutes into stoppage time. Scott Brough, like Yates, was the extra dimension on the flank from full back, and his beautifully weighted centre was knocked down intelligently and right into the path of JOYNES who buried his shot past Kennedy.
There were three other cautions. Matlock's Steve Warne and the Tigers' Matt Austin and Tomlinson. The old boys of Thorpe and Jackson failed to pull up any trees on their return, with Jackson in particular displaying the sort of frustrating form which eventually led to his demise at Matlock.
The late Gordon Duggins would have approved of the spirit, determination and skill shown in the fightback, the teams having observed a minute's silence in the former Matlock prolific scorer's memory before kick off. Manager Mark Atkins was equally delighted.
"We spoke at half time as to what we needed to do and the lads carried it out to the letter. After giving away three bad goals, we needed to respond. We did just that and if we'd played like that and had lost the game 3-1, I would still have been pleased with their second half show."
MATLOCK TOWN: Adam Sollitt, Adam Yates, Scott Brough, Liam King, Mark Haran, James Lukic, Nathan Benger (Dene Cropper 46), Steve Warne, Nathan Joynes, Ross Hannah (Kristian Witcombe 89), Ben Algar. Other subs: Josh Wain, Nick Buxton.
REFEREE: K Hayward--Stoke-on-Trent. ATTENDANCE: 270 STAR MAN: Adam Yates.
