Big striker Dene Cropper has suffered a setback in his recovery plans. The six foot two inch Gladiator who missed the whole of last season following cruciate ligament surgery looks like being out for a few more weeks after his knee became inflamed.  "I think I've done a bit too much too soon, for I'm desperate to get back playing again but the doctors have told me to rest the knee so that's what I'll have to do" said Cropper.

It is bad news for Matlock joint bosses Phil Brown and Gareth Williams who are both big admirers of Cropper.
"Its something we could have done without for Dene offers us something different in attack" said Brown. "He's been told to rest it for a few weeks and if there's no improvement he'll go back to Lillieshall for further assessment. We thought we'd timed everything right but he was starting to get a lot of aching and the pain got sharper."

On the pitch it was a mixed Bank Holiday weekend for the Gladiators who beat Whitby 2-1 at the Geoquip Stadium on Saturday before slipping to a disappointing defeat by the same scoreline at Stamford on Monday afternoon.
"Despite not being at our best I thought we were worthy winners on Saturday as we created the better chances and we were pleased to get the three points to add to the three we got in our first game against Lincoln. We were confident going into the game at Stamford but we weren't ourselves. Stamford worked and battled hard but we should really have been looking at three points. If Ryan Laight's header had gone in instead of hitting the bar and Simon could have put that late chance away we'd have probably won it. When you don't play well, you still need to be looking at getting something from the game, so the result was very disappointing."

Matlock will therefore be keen to come back from Saturday's tricky visit to Prescot with at least one point, if not all three. "Monday's result means we've put a bit more pressure on ourselves which we really didn't need to" Brown admitted. "We've got to go up to Prescot and get something out of it for we don't want to get too far behind the leading clubs. We want a good start and that's why it was so frustrating that we missed out on playing on the opening day. Prescot have got off to a good start so we'll need to go up there and play like we know we can."

Defender Glenn Kirkwood came off during the second half with a possible broken nose but Brown reckons he will be fit to play on Saturday. The same applies to Paul Riley who tweaked his medial ligament and Simon Barraclough who only played for part of the Stamford game after coming off against Whitby with a tight hamstring. Neil Ashley is set for a recall after being on holiday.
"With a lot of games coming up we decided that it'd be risky to start Simon at Stamford" Brown explained. "If he had started and made the injury worse, we'd have him missing for possibly a few weeks."

Matlock return to the Geoquip Stadium on Tuesday night when they face Worksop Town, relegated from the Conference North last season.