Matlock Town boss Mark Hume curses injury luck

FRUSTRATED Matlock Town boss Mark Hume has had to juggle his squad around after the Evo-Stik NPL Premier side were hit with a number of injuries.

The Gladiators lost 4-2 at lower league Belper Town in the Derbyshire Senior Cup on Tuesday night with George Willis (foot), defenders Micky Harcourt (ankle) and Laurie Wilson (calf), midfielder Liam Gaughan (hamstring), and strikers Danny Holland (ankle) and Niall McManus (calf) all out.

They travel to league rivals Nantwich on Saturday with an FA Trophy second round spot up for grabs as well as £5,000 in prize money.

And Hume is hoping for some positive news on the injury front before their trip to Cheshire but said: “I can’t say at present how many will be ready in time for Nantwich.

“One thing is for sure, had we played any of our injured players on Tuesday we wouldn’t have them for Saturday. It was too much of a risk to play them. and two had absolutely no chance of playing last Tuesday.

“Ideally if I would have had a full squad available, I’d have played our strongest team with the hope of a good result to carry into the Nantwich tie, but it wasn’t to be.”

Hume has also threatened personnel changed if improvements aren’t made defensively after the Gladiators shipped 11 goals in their last four games

“Up until the Daventry game we’d been on a decent unbeaten run and now we’ve got to get one going again,” he said.

“There’s going to be hiccups along the way, that’s the nature of the beast, but it’s the sickening way we do it. I can’t keep making excuses for the defensive errors, we’ll have to bring people in that can do the job defensively.

“If we are to lose games then we’ve got to lose in a better way if there’s such a thing, that’s not by gifting opposing teams goals.”