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.