Goals from Dan Bramall, Luke Hinsley and Marcus Marshall gave Matlock Town an absolutely superb 3-0 victory away at high-flying Whitby Town.
Coming into this match, the Seasiders had won their last eight games in a row with six clean sheets in a row too. However, they could not cope with Matlock’s physicality and as the game wore on, Matlock grew in confidence and took their chances to gain an excellent three points.
The first half was a quiet affair where both teams struggled to find a rhythm to their attacking play. It was clear very early on though that Whitby were not being allowed to play their normal attacking by the Gladiators and were also clearly missing the NPL’s top goalscorer, Bradley Fewster.
In the 8th minute, Marcus Marshall kicked the air rather than the ball when it pinballed around the penalty area following a corner. Any sort of connection would have surely given the Gladiators an early lead but Marshall couldn’t quite react to the split-second opportunity in time.
Whitby’s best opportunity of the whole match arrived in the 16th minute when a lovely cross from the right wing found the head of Arran Wearmouth inside the penalty area but his header flew over the bar when he should have done a lot better.
The rest of the half was dominated by sound defending from both teams. Bailey Gooda in particular for the Gladiators was excellent all game and made a couple of very important blocks. Gooda was a reassuring presence in the Matlock defence all game and looks to be a very good addition to the Gladiators squad from Steve Kittrick.
Just as the first half looked to be petering out to a goalless conclusion, Matlock took the lead. In-form Marcus Marshall surged down the right wing and beat a player for pace at the stroke of half time. Marshall passed the ball into the penalty area along the ground from the by-line. The angle of the pass managed to evade the onrushing Luke Hinsley and his marker and found itself rolling to a completely free Dan Bramall. Bramall composed himself and stroked the ball home past a despairing dive from Whitby goalkeeper Shane Bland and celebrated his first ever goal for the club with the travelling set of Matlock supports behind the net.
Matlock doubled their advantage just three minutes into the second half and it was the timing of these goals that really seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Seasiders. Matlock won a free-kick from a central position twenty yards out from goal. Sinnott took an excellent set-piece and Bland just managed to tip the ball onto the bar. Unluckily for Bland, the ball looped high into the air but was falling back just in front of the bar rather than just behind it. Luke Hinsley arrived first to the ball and beat the keeper and a defender to head the ball in from only two yards out to score his second goal of the season.
From this point on, Whitby only really had one meaningful attempt on-target and Matlock always looked dangerous on the counter-attack as Whitby piled more players forward in search of a comeback. Whitby’s biggest chance to get back into the game arrived when the Seasiders hit the post from just inside the penalty area in the 72nd minute. Substitute Matthew Tymon met the rebounding ball first but his close-range shot was superbly tipped over by a diving Jon Stewart.
In the 86th minute, as Whitby sent more and more players forward, Bailey Gooda found himself in space inside the penalty area from eight yards out. The defender struck the ball hard and with conviction but was straight at Bland whose reflex save diverted the ball back out of the penalty area.
The icing on the cake though arrived in the 88th minute when a classic counter-attack move saw Matlock take advantage of a limited amount of Whitby players back in defence. Marcus Marshall jinked his way past a player from the right wing into the centre and his effort from around twelve yards out went in off the post to make it 3-0 to the Gladiators, to give Marshall his sixth goal of the season and to cap off an excellent away victory.
Matlock Town: Stewart (c), Lacey, Gordon, Rea, Gooda, Wiley, Marshall (Williamson 88), Harris, Hinsley, Sinnott (Yates 83), Bramall (Scrivens 85).
Unused Substitutes: Dean, Smith.
Attendance: 464
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