Marine put back to back defeats behind them as they dominated Matlock Town in a comfortable 2-0 MTA home win.

Marine’s issues this season have predominantly occurred in the first half of play but that curse was broken as all elements of the team worked as one to deny Matlock any semblance of true threat on goal throughout the 90 minutes.

The deadlock was broken after 26 minutes when a Manasse Mampala chance dropped to Fin Sinclair Smith who placed his effort in the bottom right of Matlock Town’s net for his third goal of the season.

Both teams were unfortunate to lose key players in the first half. McNicholas took a close range ball to the chest and walked gingerly off the pitch whilst for Marine, defender Liam Nolan twisted his ankle and was replaced by Willem Tomlinson who signed on a short term loan only hours earlier.

10 minutes after the break, Marine made it two. Will Russ was given a golden one on one opportunity with Matlock goalie, Saul Deeney. Russ lobbed the keeper and routinely poked it in at the goal line to deservingly double the lead.

Notable Marine performances were Louis White, who commanded midfield, Kyle Hayde who defended brilliantly on the right and Finlay Sinclair Smith who has been an aggressive attacking presence in every game he’s played in.

Felix Goddard was called upon from time to time through the 90 mins and stood his ground for some half chances from Matlock but for the vast majority of the game, in a league described as most as having no easy fixtures, this seemed to buck the trend.

Late in the game, Willem Tomlinson attempted a long range effort which hit the crossbar in front of a crowd of 956.

Goals

(Marine) Sinclair-Smith 26′ / Will Russ 58′

Marine: 1 Felix Goddard, 2 Kyle Hayde, 3 Nathan Woodthorpe, 4 Liam Nolan (Willem Tomlinson 45′), 5 Jonathan Spittle, 6 Josh Wardle, 7 Finlay Sinclair-Smith, 8 Louis White,  9 Will Russ, 10 Jake Burton (Michael Carberry 60′), 11 Manasse Mampala

Subs: 12 Sol Solomon, 14 Willem Tomlinson, 15 Darius Osei, 16 Joseph Ferguson, 17 Michael Carberry

Matlock Town: 1 Saul Deeney, 2 Robbie McNicholas (Ewan Catt 45′), 3 Joe West, 4 Ollie Clark, 5 loan Evans, 6 George Wilkinson, 7 Karl Demidh, 8 Andrew Wright, 9 Kemy Agustien (Reece Styche 75′), 10 Jonathon Margetts, 11 Nathaniel Crofts (Harry Wakefield 69′)

Subs: 12 Harry Wakefield, 14 Reece Styche, 15 Sam Hooper, 16 Ewan Catt, 19 Myles Wright

Attendance: 956

Man of the match – Louis White