Since he returned to Emmerdale, Matty Barton (Ash Palmisciano) has arguably found most support in his close friend Victoria (Isabel Hodgins), with the pair even trying out a romance at one stage before deciding that they are better off remaining as friends. So it hits him hard in coming scenes when he learns from someone else entirely that his BFF is leaving the village for good.

When Amy Wyatt (Natalie Ann Jamieson) lets Victoria’s plans slip to Matty, he is deeply hurt and confronts her. She tries to explain but he storms off and her subsequent attempts to build bridges with him are ignored. As Victoria fears that they will part on bad terms, Matty is pushed into a new and somewhat dubious friendship group with Ste and Jono – two of the opposing football team.

Ash explained to Metro.co.uk: ‘Matty is absolutely gutted, because really she was his bestie. He’s absolutely heartbroken. But he does strike up a nice friendship with Ryan, and then he’s faced with the fact that he’s got these real bad-boy mates, and then this really lovely mate in Ryan, so he’s torn between the two.

‘Matty feels that in order for him to be respected by the other lads, for him to be a “proper man”, he has to be like this – he has to be like one of those guys. And he goes on a bit of a mission. It taps into the whole toxic masculinity thing. Matty feels as those he has to be more like them in order to fit in. Basically he’s going though it a little bit late in life – something that most lads go through at about 12 or 13 – trying to figure out how to act with the lads. It’s definitely a side to him that we haven’t seen before.’

Their paths cross when Jono aggressively tackles Matty, who is fuming with an over protective Pete (Anthony Quinlan) for leaping in to defend him. However, as Matty has a go at Pete, Jono and Ste invite him over to join them for drinks. Before long, Matty is acting out of character to try and impress his new friends and fit in and Pete is concerned to see him giving into peer pressure.

Following his row with Victoria, Matty decides that he doesn’t need her anyway and heads back to his new found mates to spend more time with them but soon he is warned that behind his back, Ste and Jono has been saying unpleasant things about him.

Rather than backing off from the new friendship however, it just stirs Matty into wanting to prove them wrong and impress them enough to accept him. But is he lining himself up for trouble by investing so much in these two newcomers?

And could they be leading Matty down a dark path?

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