Just when you thought there was light at the end of the
tunnel, Chesterfield manage to shoot themselves in the foot by gifting
Eastleigh probably 2 of the easiest goals they will ever score, the highlights
of that one will be an absolute horror show for anyone who dares to watch.
Message boards are full of people either directing dire
abuse at players and management or fans simply saying they’ve had enough. One
statistic highlighted is that 5 years ago Chesterfield beat Sheffield United
3-2 in a league game, and frankly gave them a good hiding on the day, right now
there are 100 league places between us.
That’s how far the club has fallen and
if the team keeps playing like this, we will be losing a local derby to
Alfreton Town in 12 months’ time.
Ron Atkinson once said “It’s the midfield, it’s always the
midfield” when referring to what goes wrong with a football team. For 25
minutes on Saturday it looked as though it would be an easy home win, but once
again the opposition simply out works The Blues in the middle of the pitch and leaves
us stretched in defence and unable to create anything except a long ball to go
forward with.
On that note, Tom Denton came out of the game against Eastleigh
with credit although it would be more appropriate if he wore a mask and a cape
as the opposition centre backs spend as much time as they can wrestling with
him rather then trying to play football.
It might not be around much longer
Last year John Sheridan turned things round with this
formation, but with no real right wing back it’s not working. Last season we
had 3 in midfield usually Smith, Weston and Rowley who worked well together as
a unit. This time Joe Rowley is asked to play right wing back and seems to have
lost all confidence especially in his ability to cross a ball and Liam
Mandeville is playing just behind the front 2.
What happens time and again when
Chesterfield lose the ball is that Mandeville doesn’t track back leaving 2
defensive midfielders up against superior numbers and we then put no pressure
on the ball. This leaves the defence exposed and they are slow really slow.
Ooh we got a corner
The most galling thing is that we come up against sides who
are simply fitter and better organised than Chesterfield. Eastleigh were no
great shakes, but only had to work harder than the Spireites and after half an
hour the game started to unravel for us. Apart from buying 2 midfielders who
actually have pace, or simply swamping the midfield I can’t see a way out of
this.
Last minute free kick
What summed it up for me on Saturday was with virtually the
last kick of the game Chesterfield played a very clever free kick routine to Gevaro
who fluffed his shot when given a chance to redeem himself for the howlingly
bad pass, which led to Eastleigh’s winner. The Notts County match live on TV
now has potential for national embarrassment.
we lost to these
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