Royals manager Neil Tooth has said his side need to improve when they face Matlock this evening. Tooth’s side have yet to win a game in their opening 3 matches and the manager is expecting another tough test at Matlock.
“It’s a totally different side to what we faced last season”, said Tooth. “Iv got a lot of time for their new management and when ever we face each other they are always tight games. To be honest though it doesn’t really matter who we are playing we just need to be better its that simple. We have not played anywhere near what we are capable off yet and the lads know that things need to change and change quickly. On Saturday we were second best we went with a game plan and it was working and we could have gone in at half time in the lead. Second half we lost our shape completely and when you do that against a side like Spennymoor they pick you off at ease and that’s what happened. I fully expect them to be in the mix come the end of the season but we shouldn’t be getting the run around like we did second half by any team in this league. Some players in the squad are not anywhere near the level they need to be and I wont stand for many more performances like we had on Saturday.”
This evenings game will be the Royals 4th away game on the spin and with the pitch problems hoping to be sorted by Saturday we asked Tooth if this was having an effect on performances. “It would be easy to say yes it is but its not just that I don’t think. We have played on 2 really poor surfaces at Eastwood and Coalville but Saturday the pitch was fantastic so I don’t think it matters where we play. Of course we would like to be back on our pitch ASAP and hopefully we will be by Saturday. Our major problem at the moment is that we are not having the best of luck with injuries in certain positions and we have also had two lads away on holiday but then that’s part and parcel we just have to get on with it.”

Asked about the players who missed Saturday Tooth said, “ Im hoping that we will have at least two back in contention this evening and hopefully all four will be back for the weekend. “

Kick Off this evening (Tuesday) is 7:45pm
Matlock Town Fc
Causeway Ln, Matlock DE4 3AR