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The UniBond League Premier Division might only have ended three weeks ago but Matlock Town joint bosses Phil Brown and Gareth Williams have been hard at work as they strive to rebuild a Gladiators squad that last season could not match the outstanding form of the 2006/07 season when they reached the play offs and were beaten finalists in both the UniBond League Challenge Cup and Derbyshire Senior Cup.

The campaign just ended saw the Gladiators finish in 16th spot, collecting just a solitary point more than relegated Leek Town in what turned out to be an incredibly tight bottom two thirds of the table.

While Matlock were safe going into the season's final day unlike a whole host of other clubs, it was still a little too close for comfort as a disastrous second half of the campaign saw them win just four games after Christmas.

And Brown is keen to get his squad in place as early as possible ahead of the new season which kicks off on Saturday August 16.

"In the close season last year we spent a lot of time and effort in trying to keep the outstanding squad we had together" Brown concluded. " Unfortunately it wasn't to be as some went at the last minute leaving us very little time to bring replacements in, Hindsight's a wonderful thing but we wish we'd looked at alternatives earlier."

The management duo have been busy as they strive to make Matlock a force again in the league.

"We've spoken to loads of players but it's very early days yet. We've some very good players that we want to keep at Matlock, but we've talked with ten to fifteen players already. At present they're hedging their bets but there's certainly a few interesting ones in there. You learn from past experiences all the time and last season things worked in certain games while in others those same things didn't. We realise that we need to strengthen the squad in certain areas. We tried to do that on numerous occasions last season but it didn't happen. The one thing that has become more and more apparent to us is that it gets tougher and tougher. Every year clubs' budgets appear to be going through the roof and then new clubs in the league certainly look like having very decent budgets and it's the same for a lot of lot of the existing clubs in the division. So we know it's going to be difficult but if we can strengthen by bringing in three or four new faces to join the players already at the club, then we can have a decent shot at having a good season."

Halifax Town's financial troubles mean they could be facing the Gladiators in UniBond action next season, but at the moment it is still unclear as to which division the Shaymen will compete in after they went into liquidation last Friday, thus losing their place in the Blue Square League. The knock on effect is likely to see Altrincham receive a third reprieve from relegation from the Blue Square Premier, while Hucknall Town look set to stay in Blue Square North in spite of finishing third from the foot of the table.

This time last year Scarborough suffered the same fate as Halifax and ended up reforming as Scarborough Athletic in the Northern Counties East League First Division. This emphasises the sound policy of not overstretching your resources, but on the other hand, Matlock's UniBond rivals such as Eastwood Town have attracted millionaire businessmen to take the club forward.

Given Matlock's history and the New Stand Development and pitch improvements at the Geoquip Stadium, it would be a real boost for everyone involved with the Gladiators, officials, management, players and fans, if they could attract an individual with financial clout to aid their progress. Last season was Matlock's worst since Brown and Williams took over in July 2004, but with hard working officials and management team, an industrious Supporters Club, plus a loyal and vocal set of supporters, the base is there for success. A benefactor could allow a famous non league club to have relistically high hopes for the future.