Matlock Town make the short trip to the Anderson Electrical Arena on Wednesday evening to face off against Borrowash Victoria in the Third Round of the Derbyshire Senior Cup.
The Gladiators will be looking to maintain their good cup form as their last two games have resulted in two victories which have propelled Matlock Town into the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy.
The Opposition
Borrowash Victoria are known as the Vics and play in the East Midlands Counties Premier League which is the tenth tier of English football and three tiers below Matlock Town. It’s fair to say that the Vics are having a disastrous season. Incredibly, they have lost all thirteen of their league games so far this season and are conceding an average of over three goals in every league match. In their most recent game, Borrowash lost away at Gedling Miners Welfare 4-0 and in their last match at home they were defeated 4-2 by Belper United.
Considering how terrible their league campaign has been, the Vics will already be quite satisfied to have reached this far in the Derbyshire Senior Cup. Borrowash received a bye straight into the Second Round of the competition where they proceeded to eliminate Belper United 4-3 on penalties after a 0-0 draw. Judging by how their season has fared, a victory over any team that Matlock decides to put out would be considered an enormous upset.
The Vics play at the Anderson Electrical Arena in the suburb of Spondon in Derby. The ground has a capacity of 5,000 with a seated capacity of 250. While Borrowash have never won the Derbyshire Senior Cup, their most recent trophy victory was in 2012 when they won the East Midlands Counties League Cup.
One to Watch
Whilst it’s been a season to forget so far for the Vics, Gavin McCready may well be a player to watch out for. McCready has scored three goals in eight appearances for the club this season.
His last goal arrived six games ago in Borrowash’s 3-2 league defeat to Rainworth Miners Welfare.
Team News
After some confusion coming into this game, it has been confirmed that veteran defender and club captain Adam Yates is available for selection for this game. It was previously thought that Yates was suspended for this game, as he was sent off in Matlock’s last Derbyshire Senior Cup game which was the 4-2 defeat to Alfreton Town in last season’s semi-final. The Derbyshire FA have since confirmed though that Yates is definitely free to play.
With this being an early round in a county cup against a much lower-ranked outfit, Steve Kittrick may well make numerous changes to the starting eleven that appeared against Ashton United in the FA Trophy last weekend.
Previous Meeting
For the last time these two sides met, we have to go back almost seven years ago when Matlock Town hosted Borrowash Victoria in the Derbyshire Senior Cup quarter-final on January 29, 2013.
The Gladiators cruised through to the semi-final with a convincing 4-1 victory over the Vics. Lewis McMahon, Phil Roe, Joe Leesley and Anthony Griffiths-Junior scored for Matlock in front of a crowd of 101.
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