Trafford 0

Matlock Tn 1

TRAFFORD Football Club made their usual inauspicious start to the Unibond season in Saturday when they fell to a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Matlock Town.

This is the Shawe View men's third season in the former Northern Premier League and on the previous two opening days they suffered defeats at Eastwood Town and Belper Town.

Manager Mark Molyneaux was already without the services of several key players for various reasons, Jim O'Donnell, Steve Jackson, Garry Vaughan, Chris Patterson and Darren Emmett all missing, and his plight became even worse just two hours before the kick off when stand-in keeper Garry Stones withdrew because of an emergency at work.

Despite a desperate search for a keeper, Molyneaux had no alternative but to play himself.

Trafford started the game brightly but found their opponents to be in typically uncompromising form and chances were few and far between in the early stages.

Both teams lacked creativity but Matlock's strike force of Farley and Davies caused problems for Steve Raffell and Billy McCartney at the heart of the Trafford defence.

The Shawe View faithful were stunned in the 29th minute when Matlock took the lead, Molyneaux failing to hold a hard low cross from the right and Jimmy Flynn sidefooting the ball home from close range.

Try as they might, Trafford still failed to get their game together and repeatedly gave the ball to the opposition.

They became more and more frustrated and were thankful to hear the half time whistle when they could sit down and discuss their game plan.

However, the opening stages of the second half saw Matlock in control once more with the impressive Farley, a trialist at Watford in recent weeks, again causing problems for the home defence.

In the 64th minute, Trafford introduced substitute Josh Mitten in place of Mike Gartside and at last they began to play with a greater sense of urgency and conviction.

On three occasions, Mitten wreaked havoc in the Matlock defence but goalkeeper Heath somehow kept Trafford at bay and the hard pressed visiting defence held firm.

In the dying seconds, Matlock broke away with Trafford committing players forward and Molyneaux was relieved to see Farley's drive rebound into play off the foot of a post.

Referee Bennett, from Bradford, brought the game to a close with Trafford trooping forlornly off the pitch following a 1-0 defeat that was ever so painful for the players, management and supporters.

Trafford Reserves made slight amends for this defeat by recording an excellent 3-1 victory at Chester Nomads in their Mid-Cheshire League Divisio two fixture.

On Saturday, Trafford travel to play Goole Town in the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup and then on Tuesday, Ashton United visit Shawe View for a Unibond League Division One fixture kicking off at 7.30pm.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.