Sunday 29 October 2017

Still bottom but Jack's upbeat

Chesterfield v Carlisle United

I left the Proact after the Carlisle game in an upbeat frame of mind even though we hadn’t won and there’s still people in the press trying to write a doom and gloom story saying “Jack Lester’s not won a home game yet” well he’s won 2 away so far and the team are looking better, as one caller to local radio pointed out in our last 3 games we’ve won one, drawn one and lost one, if that continues to the end of the season we would finish up on roughly 50 points and hopefully, safety.

JACK LESTER POST MATCH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw4s5L6-PU0


The positives that we are seeing are that the formation and style has a similarity to what Paul Cook achieved, admittedly we don’t have the midfield pairing of Ryan and Morsy so it’s not as good as Cook’s team, but there is a good basic pattern to the play. Players who looked out of sorts and presumably did not know what our formation and tactics were, under Gary Caldwell now seem way more confident, Jak McCourt for one put in an outstanding performance. Joe Rowley is now coming into good form and should be the star of the team if he can avoid injury and we have a new winger in Ian Evatt who teed up a lovely cross for the equaliser.



It’s fair to say, that under what players are referring to as “The previous management” we would have probably lost against Carlisle, having gone 2-1 behind. It was great to see a tactical switch and the team going hell for leather to get something out of the game. Jack Bonham in the Carlisle goal pulled off 2 magnificent saves, we hit the bar and Chris O’Grady missed an open net. If one of those had gone in we’d have won.


The downsides were letting in a free header to a corner, again, and the fact that wide players in Bradley Barry and Matt Briggs didn’t seem to have enough confidence to swing in a cross when in the right position. Also when Carlisle went to a 4-4-2 in the second half they had Chesterfield on the ropes and their left sided winger Nicky Adams was causing us lots of problems.


Jack Lester seemed upbeat after the game and thinks the team is a month away from full fitness to play the style of football he wants, which merely brings into question what the previous regime was trying to do. Also Jack hinted there will be personnel changes in January. Next week’s FA Cup game against Bradford City is not as important as Swindon Town away in the league a week later, but here’s hoping for a good performance.

Sunday 15 October 2017

We nearly have a team, still bottom of the league though

Ok we lost to a poor team in Morecambe and the second goal we gave them was a Sunday League nightmare. But I am actually optimistic.
The reason is that in the second half Chesterfield actually played like a team, there seemed to be a formation emerging, we created more chances in 45 minutes than we had in the previous 4 or 5 matches. The reason was that Jack Lester actually had the guts to take off our non-performing players and give the young lads a go. It’s fair to say the writing is on the wall for Chris O’Grady, he’s our highest ever paid player but he just hasn’t got the pace to do what he’s supposed to. He had one chance in the game which he should have buried but shot instead straight at Barry Roche. Robbie Weir sadly, can’t do the things he used to, his injury seems to have taken the edge off his game and he was beaten once again by an opposition midfielder and could not get back in time, he did commit the foul which gave Morecambe their free kick. Jak McCourt seemed to tire and after one really bad pass and was taken off. Stand up Conor Dimaio, pretty much the forgotten man of the side under Gary Caldwell he did the simple things so well and made the team tick, Diego De Girolamo posed an immediate threat and Jordan Flores looked OK when in his favoured position. Morecambe were stretched all over the pitch and we looked a totally different side, it wasn’t exactly total football but if Ian Evatt pops up on the right wing and nutmegs an opponent you know that confidence has started to come back into the players. The downside to our team, which was identified by Joe Rawson and Alan O’Hare on the radio before the game, we don’t have any wide players. So it proved, time after time down the left, Kellet and Reed seemed scared to put a ball in the box and played it back and inside and eventually went nowhere.
From a fan’s point of view it’s gallows humour time, one bloke next to me said “We’ll be alright next week against Crawley, we’ve got some new sponsors, It’s Butlins, their season finishes in October as well” after our umpteenth chance was blazed over the bar another said “John Lennon would be alive today if this lot had shot at him” Possibly one of the most exciting things all afternoon was watching 2 grown women in the crowd have a bitch fight and have to be escorted out of the stadium Jack Lester had the team back in on Sunday for more work, which is a good sign, better than the previous management simply hoping that things would change. In order to preserve our league status we have to hit promotion form for a few weeks, to even be on a level playing field.