There have been a series of upsets in the Third Round of the Derbyshire Senior Cup but Matlock Town made absolutely certain that they were not going to become the latest cup upset victim after they crushed tenth tier Borrowash Victoria 7-1 at the Anderson Electrical Arena on Wednesday evening.
Chib Chilaka certainly made the most of his first ever start for the club as he scored an incredible five goals in the match while Spencer Harris bagged himself a brace to take his goal tally to four for this season.
Steve Kittrick made it very clear from his strong starting eleven that he was taking this competition very seriously and Borrowash Victoria, who are having an absolutely disastrous season so far, were simply no match for the Gladiators.
The Gladiators took the lead in the 18th minute when Chib Chilaka converted an easy opportunity from six yards out for his first ever goal for Matlock Town. Chilaka then doubled Matlock’s advantage just two minutes later when he fired the ball home confidently from ten yards out with only the Vics keeper to beat. The Nigerian forward came unbelievably close to securing a twelve minute hat-trick when his hooked shot from twelve yards out cannoned off the post and the ball bounced back into the keeper’s grateful arms. In the 37th minute, Chilaka beat the last man for pace and found himself one-on-one with the onrushing Vics keeper but his shot was straight at him and the ball was cleared by the Vics defence.
The first half ended with the Gladiators 2-0 up but in the second half Borrowash simply could not handle Matlock’s dominance and the goals started mounting up. Chib Chilaka secured his hat-trick just two minutes into the second half after he showed great composure and poked the ball past the keeper from twelve yards out when free inside the penalty area.
In the 58th minute, Spencer Harris scored with a long-range shot to make it 4-0 to the Gladiators. Seven minutes later, Harris rifled the ball home from 15 yards out. The Vics keeper got his fingertips to the ball but the shot was struck with too much force for it to be kept out and this gave Matlock their fifth goal of the night.
Chib Chilaka bagged his fourth goal of the night when he easily slotted home a loose ball from six yards out in the 81st minute. Borrowash secured a consolation goal in the 90th minute when substitute Phillip Granville took advantage of a Matlock defence completely lacking in concentration and rolled the ball home past a stationary Jon Stewart from the edge of the penalty area. Steve Kittrick was unhappy with the goal conceded as this was literally Borrowash’s only shot in the entire match. The match ended with Chib Chilaka rounding the keeper easily for his fifth goal of the night and to make it 7-1 to Matlock. Chilaka was easily the man of the match after an excellent and commanding performance where he bullied the Vics defence all night and they simply could not deal with his strength and pace.
Manager Steve Kittrick was delighted with the professionalism of Matlock’s performance in his post-match interview:
“I thought we played exceptionally well…these places can be banana skins, the pitch was very boggy but I thought we were very, very professional in our performance tonight.”
Kittrick was also asked about Chib Chilaka’s performance:
“He’s a good goalscorer, that’s his trademark and we spoke before the game about getting him ninety minutes and some miles in the tank, and he’s a good finisher, so if he gets around that box, there’s only one winner and that’s him and I’m very, very pleased for him.”
Kittrick was then asked about the full-strength side he named and how seriously he is taking the Derbyshire Senior Cup:
“I take all competitions seriously…we’ve only got a small squad anyway, so we don’t come out just to make the numbers up, so there’s no point in being in it if you don’t want to win a football game, so I thought we did really, really well tonight. I’m a bit disappointed about the goal (conceded) but Saturday is a different kettle of fish, so we’ll look forward to that now.”
The Gladiators manager was asked at the end of the interview as to whether new signings are on the horizon:
“Yeah, you’ve just got to get the right sort of people in and make sure we get the right kind of people in to make us a stronger unit. We’ve had a couple of debutants, two young lads Ben (Morris) and James (Tague) who did really well so that’s been a massive plus and we’ve had a good look at them because it can be very, very difficult at points to try and get them on the pitch.”
Matlock Town: Stewart, Yates (c), Gordon, Rea, Gooda, Wiley, Hinsley (Tague 54), Dean (Sinnott 57), Chilaka, Harris, Marshall (Morris 54). Unused subs: Crouz, Bramall.
Attendance: 109