Matlock Town boss Mark Atkins looks set to add to his squad in the next few days after witnessing both a disappointing performance and a disappointing result last weekend.
Frickley Athletic recorded a fourth successive victory and a quickfire league double over the Gladiators as a 2-1 win at Causeway Lane followed a 3-1 verdict in West Yorkshire a fortnight earlier.
Atkins has put seven days notice on one player and hopes to have him available for Tuesday night's home Derbyshire Senior Cup 3rd Round tie with Glapwell. More immediately though is Saturday's crunch clash at Prescot Cables where Atkins is wanting to have at least one new face wearing the Gladiators' colours.
"I've been making a lot of enquiries and talking to a lot of managers and I'm waiting for two managers to get back to me regarding players in a higher division. I've also put seven days notice on another player which will expire early next week. The players will improve the squad. We're losing too many games and are too easy to beat at the moment. That's a terrible thing so I've got to do something about that and it's by bringing people in and I'm hopeful that we'll have at least one in for Saturday."
Atkins was fuming by Matlock's first half performance in particular against Frickley. The hosts gave themselves the proverbial mountain to climb by falling two goals behind inside the opening nine minutes as Danny Clarke and Lee Morris found the target, and although Simon Barraclough halved the deficit on 35 minutes,it proved to be only a consolation effort.
"I was very, very disappointed with us in those opening thirty to thirty five minutes until we scored. I stressed to the players beforehand that we needed to be up for it, show desire and passion. But there was none, they did that far better than us, so mthey went 2-0 up. At half time you could say we had a few words and we performed a hundred per cent better in the second half but we couldn't get thye equaliser. On the face of it though, we didn't deserve an equaliser from our first half performance."
Atkins, like Matlock's travelling fans, was left frustrated with the late postponement of Tuesday night's scheduled UniBond League Challenge Cup tie at Buxton. After two earlier attempts to play thye game had failed, Buxton officials were confident that the game would get the all clear, particularly as it had survived a 2 pm pitch inspection, but the temperature dropped dramatically in the early evening and referee Craig Grundy's decision to call the match off just after 6.45pm was predictable and correct with areas of the Silverlands pitch bone hard. The match has not been given a new date at the time of going to press but Saturday 3 January, when the 3rd Round games are due to take place looks to be favourite. The winners will be awy to Worksop Town.
"It was disappointing that the game was off but the pitch was dangerous and not fit to play on" said Atkins. "But the lads will train on both Wednesday and Thursday this week when I want to get some ideas across to them and aslo keep their fitness levels up. What is good though is the excellent morale within the dressing room."
Atkins will be hoping his players have learned from their mistakes against Frickley at second bottom Prescot.
"It'll be another tough game with both sides scrapping for points and the team that wants it more will probably win the game. I hope the lads have learned their lesson for last weekend was a big let-down. There's no problem at all with the football side of things. They link up together well and the movement is great. but I do question their ability to battle teams out and in any level of football, whether it be the Premiership, Conference, UniBond or local Sunday League, you've got to be able to win the battle before playing the football. That's what I will be impressing on them again and again. We're in trouble and in a mess, but if we can start to battle more and cut out the mistakes we'll be okay. In a way the games we've had recently have been tough and I've not really had the chance to look at all the squad. They've also probably felt the pressure a bit and it might have been better for them to play some of the more fancied clubs when they might have had the chance to express themselves a bit more and play their football. Having these games called off this past three Tuesdays has been annoying for I was wanting a friendly game or two at a competitive level and the lads that have not been playing as much would have had a chance to show me what they are capable of."
Ryan Laight should return to the squad after his two game ban for the visit to Merseyside which has generally been a happy hunting ground for Matlock. The Gladiators have won on four of their five visits to Valerie Park and will be wanting to continue in the same vein this season, particularly as Cables snatched a last gasp leveller in a 2-2 scoreline at Causeway Lane last month. Matlock will also want to improve on a dreadful away record of just one competitive victory on their travels in thirteen months.
Atkins has also said that Matlock will not be taking UniBond First Division South newcomers Glapwell lightly after a 2-1 exit to them at Hall Corner at the same stage of the competition twelve months ago. Former Town favourites Les McJannett and Kevin Gee return to Matlock for the first time as manager and assistant manager respectively and they will most likely have former Gladiators defender Matt Varley plus experienced campaigners in centre half Steve Kennedy, once with Belper and Frickley and Neil Grayson, a prolific scorer with Cheltenham and Stafford Rangers, in their line up.
"Glapwell will come to us with nothing to lose and hoping to get a scalp. But we want to win every game so we will be taking the match seriously and we want to get through to the next round."
Atkins has brought in experienced former Harrogate Town and Stalybridge Celtic goalkeeper Nick Buxton to assist him by coaching goalkeeper Andy Richmond.
"He's a very good friend and someone I've known for a very long time. Hopefully Andy can benefit from Nick's help and experience at this level and above" Atkins said.
