Not much off time for me and my team with a journey into the unknown upon us, national league north is the league my Matlock team will have to tackle if we are going to progress toward league football.
But during preseason there were a few issues to sort out, one being replacing players who have left the club.
6 players have left on loan, The biggest name is Tom Hewlett who joined Farnborough for a loan fee of £2k, he found himself down the pecking order, and needed to find game time to prove his worth.
9 more players left the club, not renewing contracts, 2 players were instrumental in the promotion push last season, Isaac Rice and John Johnston. Rice was only on a short-term deal but wanted to play higher than National League North, where Johnston, a long servant to Matlock didn’t want to be a bit part player at 33 years old, I didn’t feel he had the legs to get up and down the wing.
With that being said, myself and Martin had to boost our squad to ready for the new season, Duhameau made the move to Matlock after his loan spell, he is young and has a lot to learn. Christian Oxlade- Chamberlain, brother to Alex has arrived to provide comer at right back. Edwards and Williams both arrived after impressing at the English trial day. Carvalho made the move up north to get his career back on track as a backup to Brady. Where Chukwuemeka and Sivi came in to help the lack of wingers at the club.
With the new season about to start, I sat down with the board to discuss a new look for the team. After a meeting with Reebok, they came up with these kits for the new season.
Even with a new look on the pitch, there is some other big news to the ground, the board has announced that Causeway lane is to increase the standing area to hold a further 600 supporter’s. This is to fall in-line with league requirements and can take 3 months to finish. The cost of this work is around £60K, split down the middle with a £30k grant to help funding this project.
Now with all the preparation done, it’s straight down to work, The team has trained well and it’s going to be a hard season. Even tho we haven’t turned pro, the media down the season preview and had my Matlock team an outsider at 50-1 predicting the team will finish 19th out of 24. I would be happy with that, making us stable in the league and building for next season.
August started a day before my birthday and got off on the wrong foot with a loss away to King’s Lynn. while the work has been going on at home, it was strange to have 3 away games to start, and in the 2nd game vs Mickleover, it was entertaining to grab a 3-3 draw. 3 days later Matlock turned up at Chorley and got the 1st win of the season with a score of 2-1. we finished the month with a 3-1 win at a finish ground against Warrington.
Things got better in September when we went unbeaten in the league, starting with a bore draw vs Scarborough Athletic, but wins against Hereford, Chester, Bosten utd, and Spennymoor. In the middle of the month, we ventured into the FA Cup and a game against the Met Police. The draw put us away and we was lucky to come away with a 4-4 draw, but I had to make whole sale changes and bring in the big guns in the replay, which we won 7-3, onwards in the cup.
The FA Cup carried on in October with a 4-1 victory against Workington and a game 2 weeks later vs Woking. Sandwiched between the cup was a home game with Braintree Town, I know a southeast team in the north side of the league, but that didn’t matter because we put 4 past them. We Carried on the scoring run in the cup again, on the day we had our biggest crowd, putting 5 pass woking, then found out we have an away game vs Mansfield to look forward to. Then a little blip in the road when we went down 1-2 at home to Kidderminster, then ending the month with an away win against Marine, scoring 4 once again.
After 15 games and a big Christmas period upcoming, I am happy to say we sit in 2nd place, 13 points behind South Shields, I can’t sign the praise of the players so far, only drawing 2 and losing 2.
Join me next week to see how the Christmas period will be full of joy or heartache.
#GladsAllOver
