Midfield dynamo Liam King's 61st minute header cancelled out Neville Thonpson's opener for Rangers on 31 to earn Matlock a richly deserved point at Marston Road on Tuesday night.
The Gladiators bounced back from their heavy loss at Chester last weekend with a determined and spirited performance. On another day, they might even have won.
But the point came at a cost with Kris Witcombe, Gareth Davies, King and Ian Holmes all picking up worrying injuries ahead of this weekend's home FA Trophy clash with Blue Square North leaders Hyde.
They went into the match without both Micky Harcourt and Oscar Radford who had hamstring trouble. Steve Warne was left on the bench after a below par showing at Chester. Into the starting line up in a 4-4-2 formation came Kris Bowler, Witcombe and Tyeisse Nightingale.
Matlock started brightly although it needed a superbly timed tackle by skipper James Lukic on Thompson to avert danger in the opening couple of minutes. Town responded and after Nightingale, who again drew applause from the visiting fans for his tremendous workrate, was fouled some twenty five yards out, Rangers goalkeeper Danny Read dived smartly to his left to fingertip a Chris Bettney free kick to safety. Soon afterwards Bowler drove narrowly wide from distance.
Stafford were a physical spoiling outfit whose main objective seemed to be to stop Matlock from playing. They put in some hefty challenges which saw bookings for skipper karl Espley, Glyn Blackhurst and Peter Heler before the break and Dan Skelton in the second half. Referee Dragan Kuzmanovic though over-reacted at times, particularly when Witcombe was yellow carded for stopping Skelton illegally when it looked impossible for him to get out of the way.
This led to an untidy first half spectacle, a stop start affair, which suited the hosts good deal more than Matlock.
King shot at Read after Algar's dazzling run and pass from the left before Holmes kicked the ground as he challenged Read to a through pass. he needed treatment and laboured through the rest of the half before being replaced by Lee Morris at the interval.
Gareth Davies was a godsend for Town in the physical battle and he might have claimed an assist as he shrugged off a couple of challenges to set up fellow midfielder King who shot a couple of feet wide from the edge of the box.
So it was somewhat against the run of play when Stafford drew first blood in their next attack as THOMPSON drove low and hard and watched his firmly struck effort beat the diving Kennedy and settle in the bottom corner.
Adam Yates turned on a Bettney free kick to have his shot blocked and Read was pleased to gather from Nightingale after the Nottingham based forward could only connect with a low Bettney centre with his studs.
Matlock were out early for the second half, keen to find an equaliser at the very least. Nightingale was closed down swiftly after meeting Algar's cross. His intention was to find the supporting Bowler. Probably a first time shot might have brought a better reward.
Sometimes they were too eager, being caught offside too frequently, but the 61st minute brought them joy when Morris knocked down Algar's cross to Bettney who chipped sweetly over Read and KING towered above the Rangers defence, hanging in the air to plant a delightful header into the top left hand corner.
With Morris leading the line with strength and purpose, Matlock now looked favourites to go on and win. Bettney fired just a foot too high, King's penetrating run through the heart of the Rangers back four saw him just miss out on Davies' through pass and a Nightingale pull back from the right should really have been gobbled up by a Gladiator, had anyone been on the end of it.
Two Nightingale crosses were blocked as Matlock continued to knock on the Stafford defence's door. But there was not quite enough in the visitors' armoury to knock it down.
There was a sniff of a chance for Rangers when Witcombe felled Liam Shotton on the edge of the box as the game reached stoppage time but Kennedy was well placed to hold Jon Patrick's fiercely struck free kick.
In a last push, Matlock broke to win a corner, invitingly floated at neck high along the six yard box by Ben Hunter. The limping King and then Yates behind him could not get that vital touch that would have sent the three points back to Derbyshire.
The match between the division's draw specialists predictably ended all square, but at the final whistle Read and Espley raged at one another and had to be separated, as each blamed one another for the mix up from the corner which very nearly cost them the game.
MATLOCK TOWN: Jon Kennedy, Kris Witcombe, Kris Bowler, Algar, Liam King, Adam Yates, James Lukic, Chris Bettney (Ben Hunter 81), Tyeisse Nightingale, Ian Holmes (lee Morris 46), Gareth Davies (Steve Warne 77), Kris Bowler. Sub not used: Nick Buxton.
REFEREE: D Kuzmanovic (Lichfield) ATTENDANCE: 370 STAR MAN: Liam King
