Half time 0-0
Bill
Albion 2 - 0 up, second goal from the spot, Matlock keeper sent off.
Just beat me to it!
Bill
Gate 393
Great match we dominated right from start till the end.
When was the last time we had two penalties in our favour and scored both of them ?
Perhaps Chad could enlighten us.
People might see this result, and think "hmmm, 2 late penalties, sounds like a lucky win". In fact, we thoroughly deserved the victory, another good solid performance, created lots of chances that didn’t quite go in, looked pretty good at the back, and, once again, finished the game off comfortably. Didn’t hear who got Man of the Match, but it would be Lloydy for my money.
Matlock must have been sick, having defended well then losing to 2 pens, but they couldn’t really complain, both spot kicks were the right decisions. Thought the ref had a good game, and not just because of the pens - he played several good advantages, generally got things right, and controlled the game.
All our rivals have won tonight as well, but we’re still second, and we can’t do more than keep winning, carry on keeping clean sheets, carry on playing great football. At the moment, we look ominously good!! There’s a long way to go, but we look to have staying power.
UniBond League � Premier Division - Tuesday September 11 2007
WITTON ALBION 2 MATLOCK TOWN 0 att. 393
TEAM: Kennedy, Coo, Brownhill, Pritchard (Kearney 82), Brodie, Spearritt © (Barras 66), Brown, Lloyd, Warlow, Crowe (Proffitt 66), Peers.
Scorers: Peers 76 (pen), Warlow 82 (pen)
Man of the Match : Rob lloyd
Hard work and patient build up play eventually brought Witton a deserved 3 points against a disappointing Matlock Town side. The 30 or so who made the journey from Derbyshire will have gone home frustrated by both the negative counter attack based tactics of their own team and the manner of their defeat, with two penalties conceded in the last 15 minutes.
From the start the Albion seized the initiative, with Coo, Brodie and Peers finding acres of open space in wide areas. The first real opportunity came Witton�s way in the 5th minute, Mark Peers� direct run and teasing cross finding Steve Brodie 8 yards out. The veteran winger could and probably should have done better than blaze his shot over the bar. This was a taste of the way things would be for the first quarter of the match, with Witton exposing the Matlock back four time and again, but with nothing to show for it. Liam Brownhill fired over from 20 yards unchallenged and Adam Warlow met another inviting Peers cross but could only head wide at the far post.
The Albion�s next opportunity came the way of the lively Alex Brown, who coasted past three half-hearted Matlock challenges and fashioned himself a shooting opportunity, only to tamely shoot straight at the keeper. This seemed to act as a wake up call to Matlock who then had a good five minutes of pressure, but could only create a couple of half-chances which were squandered. The closest Witton came in the first half was from a self won Mark Peers free kick which was expertly curled round the blind side of the wall. Matlock�s keeper Andy Richmond produced an excellent save to keep things level. That was about as good as things would get for Richmond however.
From the resulting corner, the ball was delivered onto the head of the ever dangerous Brian Pritchard at the far post. Pritchard seemed odds on to score his third goal of the season but his bullet header incredibly struck team-mate Dean Crowe on the line and went over. Adam Warlow and Mark Peers then created a chance for each other to open the scoring within a minute, but frustratingly neither could find the target, with Peers being denied again by the Matlock keeper, and Warlow�s back post header from another perfect Peers cross hitting the lunging Steve Circuit and going out for a corner.
The Albion started the second half with the same vigour as they had finished the first. The only indiscretion in the first 15 minutes being an attempted clearance from the otherwise excellent Cavell Coo which struck Matlock’s Simon Barraclough and looped just wide of the Witton upright.
Peers continued to cause Matlock’s left back Ryan Davis all manner of problems and he created another chance for Warlow with a cross driven in early from the touchline. However, the Referee’s Assistant Mr McDonald gave Warlow offside even though the ball had been played backwards. Warlow was gifted another scoring opportunity almost immediately by the vision of Alex Brown who picked up the ball 20 yards out and lifted the ball over the Matlock centre halves with the outside of his right foot – a pass that would not have looked out of place in the Nou Camp. Unfortunately Warlow’s first touch was awkward and the pass did not get the goal it richly deserved.
With 55 minutes on the clock, Cavell Coo made his first serious second half foray into Matlock territory with a winding run which took him right to the edge of the Matlock penalty area. He expertly made himself a yard to get a shot off, which was hardly a rocket but was still unconvincingly palmed away by Richmond who was yet to keep hold of a ball. Coo continued to pose a threat, overlapping well down the right, and it was his cross that was cleared by Glen Kirkwood straight against the onrushing Adam Warlow and flashed inches wide of the post with the goalkeeper stranded.
Mark Peers then produced the greatest piece of individual skill of the game. The tricky winger picked the ball up on the left wing, rode three desperate Matlock challenges and unleashed a dipping drive from fully 30 yards that beat the keeper all ends up before crashing off the post and away to safety. Witton had their tails up now and it only seemed a matter of time before the breakthrough came. However Peers and Brownhill both missed half chances and Adam Warlow was denied by a good save when clean through.
The game turned on a double substitution on 66 minutes, The quiet Dean Crowe was replaced by the direct and pacey Dorryl Proffitt and Tom Spearritt was replaced at centre back by club captain Tony Barras. Almost immediately Proffitt was put clean through by Lloyd. He rapidly covered the 40 or so yards to the Matlock box before coolly rounding Richmond who brought him down for a clear penalty. Incidentally the decision was bravely given by the Referee’s Assistant as Mr Scregg the Referee was still in the Albion half, such was the pace of the attack. Richmond was then rightly sent off and was replaced in goal by Gareth Williams. The makeshift keeper could do nothing about MARK PEERS’ penalty which was thumped into the bottom corner.
Proffitt was put through again almost immediately but he opted for power rather than placement when any shot on target would surely have resulted in a second goal.
In the end it didn’t matter, as in the 82nd minute Rob Lloyd’s surging run was crudely and abruptly ended by a cynical challenge in the box by Kirkwood for Witton’s second penalty of the night. The Matlock centre half can consider himself very fortunate not to have followed his keeper for an early bath, having already been booked for a similar challenge on Peers in the first half.
ADAM WARLOW stepped up and confidently despatched the ball past Williams for his second goal of the season. This allowed the Albion to take the foot off the gas for the last 10 minutes and Brian Pritchard was replaced by Ian Kearney. Witton even had the luxury of evening the numbers up by letting Warlow come off for the last 5 minutes, despite using all three substitutes. It made no difference to the outcome and Witton go into Saturday’s F.A Cup encounter with Prescot on the back of a good performance and six consecutive clean sheets.
Excellent match tonight both teams played some very good football but imo and those i was with thought witton were the better team and deserved the three points.
Matlock did play some good football and could of took the lead in the first half but when there was a mix up in the albion defence luckily the ball just drifted wide of the post. In the end it took two penalties to break the dead lock which imo were well justified from where i was seated in the main stand, the first from a short backpass and the second from a trip well inside of the box. (did the linesman flag for the first pen, or was it the ref’s decision alone).
I thoroughly enjoyed the match tonight 
although i was a little dissapointed by some gimp of A matlock fan who for some reason had to call me a effing t**t :o (bless him, give the lad a pat on the head) for cheering the witton team off the pitch as i left with my uncle and a friend.
Looking forward to saturday. 
An excellent match report Greenie (I think we may have a new Chief Sports Writer in waiting)!!!
Good performance last night! We were perhaps fortunate to keep another clean sheet, however the win was more than deserved. I have said a few times already that we are more patient this season and more professional - last night was further proof.
If Peers, Lloyd, Brown and Brownhill especially continue to run at the opposition defence in their box we will rightly pick up a lot of penalties this year - we should have had one on Saturday. These players are frightening when they run with the ball and force the defender/keeper into doing something!!! As sson as they get into the box it makes the defenders job much harder.
I think Coo is starting to look a very good signing and Tom far better suited at centre-half. All the clean sheets support this! Pritch and Liam have also been class over the last few weeks.
Crowe is not doing enough (other than moaning)! I don’t think he is fit however equally I think what we are seeing at the moment might be it! At the moment Thornley will walk straight back into the side when available. I think the combination is Adam and Rod from what I have seen so far.
Some of the football last night was again fantastic to watch, there is certainly not a better footballing side than us on current displays.
Didn’t think Matlock were too bad to be honest. Think we sometimes take for granted the ability of our defence. Yes they looked very comfortable tonight but Matlock did get the ball down in the final third and play a bit. Thought Alex Brown was awesome again in the middle and Lloydy is hitting form. Peersy is destroying full backs and Warlow’s workrate is phenomenal.
It’s looking good! All we can do is keep winning and the rest should fall into place. One very positive thing to look at is that the rest of the teams at the top have all conceded at least 7 goals compared to our 2. If they keep conceding they will come unstuck eventually.
I honestly thought Matlock were a really good team. Their centre-half was excellent at times. Although they didn’t really create that many chances at the other end, they were certainly well organised and a decent team. I think that they came for a draw and tried to hit us on the counter, but in the end the better side won.
Peers, Lloyd, Brown, Pritch, Tom, Liam, Brodie, Warlow were all excellent again.
Matlock have some quality players, their 11 was especially good. That’s what made it even more unbelieveable that they would be so negative. They will pick up zero points away from home against the top 5-6 teams if they adopt that approach all season.
But looking at our performance, we created 23 chances last night, ranging from excellent to 50/50. Someone is going to be on the end of a hiding soon if we carry on like that…
This could definitely be the case after Warlow’s goal last night. I know it was only a penalty but it should do wonders for his confidence
I think Matlock deserve a little more credit than that. Despite the fact that i feel we deserved the win, if it wasn’t for the 2 cast-iron penalties then it may of ended up being 0 - 0, and job done for Matlock. They are a decent team, and will pick some usefull points up away from home this season - hopefully against the likes of Fleetwood, Gateshead, and Guisley!!
And looking at last night’s results, Fleetwood had 2 penalties and a 90th minute goal. So not a walk in the park.
Also our gate was the highest of the evening, which is excellent.
Once we click in attack, somebody will get a hammering.
I’ll take 1-0 on Saturday though!
Greetings from Madeira
Brilliant result
How’s the cake? ;D
Maybe Robbo, but teams with real pace in their front two like Fleetwood and Gateshead would have found it easier to break them down than we did.
Some good teams came to Wincham Park last year, full of confidence, and got a good hiding. Whitby and Marine for instance.
Someone’s gonna get it…
Incidentally, Gateshead’s next two games are Matlock away and Guiseley at home. Should be interesting…
Well someone is dropping points somewhere then aren’t they… We need to make sure we capitalise. Ilkeston away wont be a walkover so we need to trun out in numbers and cheer them on.
Brilliant performance last night from the boys against one of the better
outfits in the league, thought the scoreline was very generous from a game we
dominated for long periods. Keep it up lads, Boing Boing and all that.