After what joint boss Phil Brown described as a decent pre season programme, the serious business of collecting league points begins on Saturday with the Gladiators having a mouth watering visit to face FC United of Manchester.
And while the trip to Bury's Gigg Lane headquarters to play in front of a crowd which is expected to top 2500 will see the Matlock fans outnumbered by roughly twenty to one, Brown says his troops will bve relishing the occasion.
"These are the kind of games our lads will want to play in. There'll be a large crowd and this can act as a great motivation for us. To be honest I think our side's too young to freeze. They're just keen to get out there playing and hopefully produce the goods on the day."
FC United have had a meteoric rise following their formation which saw them enter the Vodkat North West Counties Second Division in the summer of 2005. Successive league titles saw them join the UniBond First Division North at the beginning of last season, earning promotion last May through the play offs, with Tuesday's visitors to Causeway Lane, Bradford Park Avenue, finishing in top spot.
"Obviously it's a tough start for us" Brown continued. "Especially with Bradford Park Avenue to follow. Both have come up and spent a few quid on players to strengthen so we know it'll be difficult on both Saturday and Tuesday. But we've got most of the players we were after in the summer. We knew what we were looking for, not only to strengthen us, but also they are lads who can excite and we hope they can gell and make us into a good footballing side. We've strengthened at the back as well so hopefully we can be solid there as well as looking good as an attacking force. We're obviously looking for a good start on Saturday and then that set us up to face Bradford when we hope that the Matlock public will turn up in good numbers and see that we've tried to put an attacking side together that plays exciting football. Bradford will probably bring a few down so we hope that our fans can get behind us vocally not only on Saturday but on Tuesday as well."
Brown remained tight lipped about his line up at Gigg Lane except to say that new boy Liam King will be missing due to him serving a one match ban after a sending off for Rotherham United Reserves last season. But six of the other seven summer recruits look set to start the match. Left back Lee Featherstone, central defender Ashley Foyle, midfielders Simon Harrison and Steve Warne, winger Jamie Jackson and striker Ross Hannah are expected to be included after all featuring in the starting eleven in last Saturday's 3-2 win at Belper in the final pre season fixture.
Jackson put pen to paper after impressing in the friendly games. He was on loan at Matlock for three months from Chesterfield last season and was hoping to stay in the Football League after the Spireites had released him last May.
"He's got a lot of pace, skill and can beat players, so we're hoping he can settle in here at Matlock and be a big player for us" Brown said.
It may be that Ryan Davis, who was on holiday last weekend,coming in for King at right back is the only change that Brown and fellow joint boss Gareth Williams will make. If that is the case, then all three of their top strikers will start as new skipper Simon Barraclough teams up with Dene Cropper and Hannah in what could be a fearsome attack.
There is a slight doubt regarding Matty Thorpe who missed training on Tuesday with a foot injury but he is expected to train tonight (Thursday) and be fit to travel to Bury.
With teams allowed to name five substitutes in the UniBond League this season, Matlock are hoping to add another goalkeeper to their squad as back up for Andy Richmond ahead of the weekend.
The Belper victory meant that the Gladiators had won four, drawn two and lost three of their busy nine game pre season programme. Apart from winning at Christ Church Meadow, the victories came against Staveley Miners Welfare (4-1), Rainworth Miners Welfare (6-1), and a Sheffield United X1 (3-1). Honours ended even with draws against Blackburn Rovers Reserves (0-0 in James Lukic's testimonial) and Carlton Town (2-2), while a full strength Chesterfield edged a 1-0 win in the Banner Jones Cup before Matlock lost 2-0 to both Stocksbridge Park Steels and Mansfield Town. Brown says the larger than usual number of warm up games has been useful.
"The only disappointment about our pre season has been Paul Riley not being fit for he was tremendous for us last year. Apart from that it's been a very good pre season. There's been some good performances and we've learned something from every game. We were very disappointed with our display at Stocksbridge but to be fair we probably learned more from that game than the others! Having signed quite a few new lads,playing nine games has given them chance to play together and get to know each other better as well as getting everyone's fitness levels up. Everyone's worked hard and hopefully it'll stand us in good stead ahead of what we know will be a challenging season."
