Mark E Smith is dead

A compilation of the Fall, my little radio show

Chesterfield back in trouble

It’s fair to say that didn’t qualify as one of the best Christmas series of fixtures ever on the pitch and off the field, who knows what is going on with the proposed club buyout?

We’re back in the bottom two it was simply an awful day at Accrington and judging by the post match interviews with Robbie Weir and Jack Lester they know we are in deep trouble. Before the massive spate of injuries it looked like Jack Lester had sorted the team out and with a little more of an addition to the forward line we’d have a good side and easily avoid the drop.
Now the defence is completely decimated and he has to start all over again and decide who are the best players and what formation to play.

Defensively, at Accrington our makeshift back line switched off for the first goal from a short corner. For Stanley’s second, all the fans at the back of the goal behind me were shouting for our back line to get out, don’t let their men turn or shoot, which was exactly what they did, although I have to say it was a brilliant finish by McConville. I think it’s best to draw a veil over the second half goals we conceded and remember that anyone can have a bad day at the office.

Up front we have only scored one in the last 6 games and that’s now a major concern in the last 2 games Kristian Dennis has barely received a single pass or cross despite the fact that we have played some good stuff in midfield but all our possession has added up to nothing. A lot of fans seem to think that Dennis is not showing any interest, but he’s being marked out of games with good positions being created but seemingly few players being prepared to shoot when the ball to our main striker isn’t on for a pass.

The next 3 home matches are now key, Luton is the biggest test of them all in this division and Stevenage and Crawley and real “must win” games.

Off the pitch it would be nice if there was some kind of statement from the club. Since we heard from Mr Carson that there was an interested buying party and the club was waiting on a non-refundable deposit, there has been no word. Is no news good news or is the whole thing off? Just a statement saying “Negotiations are on-going.” would calm a lot of nerves.
Whilst I was at the game at Accrington, a bird decided to leave a non-refundable deposit on my car windscreen, wiping it off wasn’t the most pleasant experience

So did the mentioned takeover ever really exist? I've seen Chinese people at the match are they still negotiating? Or was it all a load of baloney?

Chesterfield out of the relegation zone

Chesterfield out of the dreaded drop zone with a late, late winner from Robbie Weir

They say football matches are won and lost on fine margins and it was never better illustrated than that, Robbie Weir in the 93rd minute finally grabbed the points for us, if he hadn’t taken that chance Chesterfield would still have been in the relegation places, along with our visitors Barnet.

After the game speaking to our birthday boy and match winner was an enlightening and sobering experience, he actually criticised his own game and said he wasn’t good enough. When I asked how he felt when Ian Evatt put him through to score, Weir suggested that with the way he’d played, most people would have expected him to hit the corner flag.
Compared to the bland nonsense coming from players and managers on TV that we see week in week out, it’s a refreshing change to hear some honesty. Robbie Weir also said that he thought The Blues could still mount a play off challenge, well it’s nice to hear some confidence coming from the dressing room.


So why were we so bad under Gary Caldwell?

Football is a closed world, as it should be, us non-football folk don’t expect to have to justify our performance at work in front of journalists. Steve Eyre’s interview on Peak Fm this week was nothing short of a revelation about what had gone wrong for Gary Caldwell. In our naivety many fans, myself included, simply assume that football people must know what they are doing, as it is their industry.

It looks as though Gary Caldwell wanted Graham Barrow to be his assistant all along, and the decision-making process behind the scenes really wasn’t the best. Eyre also suggested that Guy Branston had “infiltrated” the club by talking to both Gary Caldwell and Ashley Carson and playing them off against each other. Branston appeared to have taken the transfer decisions out of Gary Caldwell’s hands and signed “too many substitutes” according to our former assistant manager, who described Branston’s 2 match managerial tenure as “A PR farce,” harsh but true.

It’s also disturbing to know that Gary Caldwell thought that the team were super fit, but that Steve Eyre didn’t think the players were doing enough work on a daily basis, and that the tactics and player selections were often not right.
Robbie Weir says his fitness has improved and so has the whole squad body shapes have changed and they can last longer in a match. Surely it's just taken as a given that players are fit enough to do the job? It's what us fans expect, Barnet for example, were out on their feet for the last 10 minutes of the match. Jack Lester said that our fitness got us through the game, it's amazing to me that the previous regime weren't good enough to get players up to scratch, but of course Gary Caldwell dispensed with the last fitness coach. Stroll on, talk about amateur


Still mistakes will always be made in the game, Chris Turner has secured a new job in football and I’d like to wish Port Vale the very best of luck with that. Also ex-manager Gary Caldwell has commented that he thinks Kristian Dennis can play at a higher level of football, he did do Gary, before you got us relegated from League One remember? Anyway it’s nice to have Jack Lester in charge isn’t it?


Nearly Christmas we had a brass band at half time, it snowed near the end and got three points



https://www.barnetfc.com/news/2017/december/reckless-guide--chesterfield/

Check out this utterly hilarious Vlog from a Barnet fan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxySOgYMs54&app=desktop

Dementia and Football, Mansfield Town away

Football and dementia; are issues currently in the public eye due to Alan Shearer’s documentary, which aired last week. The FA have finally got round announcing that they are launching a study to see if there is a link between heading a football and suffering from dementia in later life.

We are all aware what is happening to Ernie Moss, former Mansfield player Kevin Bird is also suffering from a form of dementia, as are many others highlighted in Alan Shearer’s show. Football fans will of course say that this is something we have known all along, but science doesn’t work like that, things have to be proven in clinical tests.

For those reasons I’d like to highlight the great work undertaken by charity walkers who made it from the Proact to Field Mill on Saturday, organised by Mansfield supporter Mick Edge who raised money for Alzheimer’s and also Guide Dogs for The Blind.

Many people may ask why is there no known cure for Alzheimer’s, well science hasn’t got there yet, but it could do, if there’s enough money put into clinical trials and many think that’s where football could step in, football clearly isn’t short of money.

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE MY REPORT ON THE UNIVERSITY OF LANCASTER's BREAKTHROUGH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoE3I7qok8E&t=51s&list=PL5q5VCSdVadco-SccARdmKqP5dDrCf_pX&index=29


The University Of Lancaster under the leadership of Professor David Allsop and his team has actually developed a compound which they are confident will stop the onset of Alzheimers.
This compound can’t reverse the condition, but it is hoped it can stop things getting worse. However what is needed is money, in order start clinical trials on people who are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, once the clinical trials are proven, then a drug could be made. How does that work? Well that’s where drug companies have to step in and decide to manufacture such a thing and put it on the market. It’s a long and costly process. Governments tend not to fund drug research it’s usually down to the private sector to do that.
There are many forms of dementia and Alzheimer’s is one of the major types that we know about, so this research is not a “cure all” but certainly a step in the right direction.

Defying Dementia http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/defyingdementia are slowly raising funds for what they hope will be a medical breakthrough which could help everyone, but they need £1-2 million pounds to even start getting clinical trials underway.

So where could that sort of cash be generated?
A fraction of the gate money from an England match, perhaps? The PFA sticking its hand in it’s pocket? A bit of spare change from a Premier League team, maybe? Football should take the lead, we really shouldn’t have to rely on blokes like Mick and his charity walk.

We won at home!

How much of a relief was the Exeter game? 3 months since our last home win,
one shot on target, one goal and three precious points.

Kristian Dennis has now scored in all of our last 5 league games, which must be some sort of a record; it’s not bad for a guy who was once loaned to Woodley Sports by Stockport County. Woodley Sports is actually a team, not a shop, if anyone was wondering. Also quite amazing to think that Dennis has not been our regular first choice striker for the whole season, he had been a sub for a number of early matches and came off the bench to score against Lincoln and Grimsby.

All the amateur pundits and rivals web sites are now wondering when we are going to sell him. Do other teams get this? Does anyone think Danny Hylton is bound to leave Luton, are teams queueing up to get Billy Kee from Accington Stanley?

I’d not have dared to have even looked at the table if we’d conceded a late goal; I haven’t got any fingernails left after the last 10 minutes of that one. I felt sure when they hit the bar they would have scored the rebound and I think we got a bit lucky near the end as I am sure Exeter had a good shout for a penalty denied as Ian Evatt seemed to be shirt pulling.

Getting Nervous

On the plus side Jerome Binnon-Williams looked immense, especially in the first half, frankly having him on the pitch is the equivalent of signing a new player. What he gave the side was someone who will take on the full back and want to get the ball in first time, it’s exactly the sort of player that’s been missing for the last season and a half, so many times this year we’ve seen players having to make up the numbers in the left back position and not have the confidence or ability to stick in a decent cross. Gary Caldwell brought him to the club and his injury was unfortunate for our former manager, as it meant that his favoured 3-5-2 formation didn’t work.

What gladdens the heart of many Spireites is Jack Lester’s interview after the game he says we are building something special here, fine words for a man whose team currently sit bottom of the table, he says the players are giving him everything, but have to work hard to stay in the team. One interesting omen is that at this stage last season Exeter City went bottom of the league but ended up in the playoffs, I’m not sticking any money on that outcome, but I think we’ll avoid the drop.

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.

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.