Defeat at Orient

I’m always wary when your manager says that we are going to win the next game, it’s usually a case of coming down to Earth with a bump and so it proved at Leyton Orient. The thing was, in the press box most of the Orient commentary team thought that Chesterfield were the best opponents they had seen at Brisbane Road, however since we were defeated it’s probably worth sticking your money on the O’s to go up.

Getting vertigo on the camera gantry at Brisbane Road

In effect Chesterfield ‘s demise mirrors that of Leyton Orient only we appear to be a season or so behind them, when they dropped out of the league due to having an eccentric Italian owner who kept on sacking the manager, they found it a real struggle in their first season in the National League. Slowly under Justin Edinburgh they have turned things around and now sit pretty on top of the table by playing some half decent football, unlike the majority of the sides in this division, although agreement in the press box was unanimously that there isn’t a single team that you’d call a consistently good side in the National League.

At Orient the new stand certainly is impressive

On the pitch, I personally though Chesterfield made things too easy for Orient at the start of the game not putting in enough tackles and making it alarmingly simple for the home side to go through our midfield and score before ten minutes were on the clock. Once Martin Allen made a tactical switch and put Alex Kiwomya on the right, Chesterfield suddenly looked the better side and scored an excellent goal.  The key moment for me was once Kiwomya went off with a hamstring problem Chesterfield stopped moving the ball as well as they had done and Orient took the initiative. The home side’s second goal came from a corner that was never cleared properly, even though the opportunity to put the ball out of play was missed by the Blues a good Orient cross still could have been defended, but slackness cost us and the game was effectively sealed at 2-1 to the home side. Despite some controversy, for my money the third goal was a correct penalty decision, although needlessly conceded by Joe Rowley.

So, onto the Christmas fixtures where Chesterfield must gain wins to take us away from the dreaded drop, in a throwback to times past, we play the same side Solihull Moors twice in 6 days home and away sandwiching in a fixture against Hartlepool. Solihull are 6^th in the National League and put up a very good televised display against Blackpool in the FA Cup, it pains me to say it, but they won’t be easy fixtures especially with our ever-growing injury list.

Chesterfield faithful queue up to get in the old stand

From bad to worse, to oblivion for Chesterfield F.C.?

Chesterfield’s inexorable slide continued with yet another one all draw this time away at Eastleigh, a good result on the day, but one where our lack of firepower now sees us in the bottom 4 of the National League. Another one-all draw at home to London suburb Bromley didn't improve things much either. Now we hear that Tomlinsons, the club's sponsors, are pulling out, things are dire, on and off the pitch.

Compare and contrast our fortunes with those of Wigan Athletic if you will, a team from a similar sized town to Chesterfield, yet one which has to compete for support with Rugby League. Wigan did not even get into the league until the 1980s and after that, rattled around in the lower tier until local businessman Dave Whelan came along in 1995 and bought the club, built a new stadium, and won 3 promotions in 10 years to take them into the Premier League and an FA Cup final victory. 

Whelan has just sold the Latics to a Hong Kong based firm International Entertainment Corporation for £22 million. Wigan currently sit 17^th in the Championship, just above Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday. 

The Press gantry  at Eastleigh

Their manager is a bloke called Paul Cook and their main midfielder, is one Sam Morsy.

In an almost mirror image of Wigan is Chesterfield, also owned by a local businessman called Dave who sends packing potential suitors, from China, Sweden and closer to home, by declaring that they are tyre-kickers and time wasters.

Roberto Martinez who managed Wigan to their greatest ever triumph at Wembley was recently quoted as saying “Dave Whelan is, the reason that Wigan achieved what they achieved. He had an incredible vision, he was a winner and everything he did was done properly and that was contagious.” Our Great Leader avowed that his vision was to “Get the club into the championship and flog it.” Perhaps he could take a tip from Dave Whelan on how this can now be achieved; although to be fair we do have a contagious culture at the club, but one which involves a rather more downward trajectory than we’d hoped for.

At the time of writing, time must be running out for Martin Allen, upbeat in press conferences and very proud of our unbeaten run, which is also a non-winning league run of 18 games. Allen was actually previously sacked at Saturday’s opponents Eastleigh after not winning for 7 matches and guiding them to 15^th place in the National League a spot which would now be regarded as success by most Spireites. 

Eastleigh was an awful wet afternoon, somewhere in Hampshire the supporters bus arrived 5 minutes before kick off. I was filming for the club website and had to climb up a scaffold in the rain set up the camera and get the best pictures I could manage. With rain on the lens and on my glasses I am surprised I got anything on camera at all.

I recently had the misfortune to drive past The Darlington Arena which used to be home to the local football team, who now don’t play there anymore but first ground shared with Bishop Aukland and are now at a much smaller ground in the vicinity, their fans recently clubbed together to make new improvements to the ground. 

Darlo now sit 16^th in the National League north, 2 places below Alfreton, frankly we have more chance of ending up like them than Wigan. Here we go, we could end up a fan owned club desperately looking for someone to buy Chesterfield FC, same thing as happened when Darren Brown took over and ruined the club. Or maybe the club will just be run into the ground and never sold? Ashley Carson wants to know who threw a bottle onto the pitch at the last home game, probably someone who wasn't very pleased with the rubbish they paid to watch.

Getting better or not as awful?

Well apparently, the team are getting better, but are they? The midweek draw against Sutton was slated by Martin Allen as being awful, but at least we got a point through virtually our only clear-cut chance of the match thanks to Jonathan Smith scoring. On Saturday we got a one all draw thanks to Jonathan Smith scoring with virtually our only clear-cut chance of the match. Mind you we had lots of chances against Wrexham in the one apiece result; good job Jonathan Smith grabbed our late equaliser in that one.

Having said that the team is improving is OK but more than one point a game is needed otherwise relegation and the end of the club as we know it looms large. I think in the last 3 league matches we have seen players give it all they have got it’s not as if they aren’t trying, I think we have to be honest and say that one or two of the side haven’t really got it. We’ve played “top” teams in this division and they are hard-working and well organised and that’s about it, there’s no outstanding teams, but on Saturday we should have won.  

Plastic Pitch at Harrogate

We who wait

For me the turning point of the game against mighty Harrogate, was Martin Allen making substitutions straight after we’d scored and Chesterfield went from an attempt to play a passing game to a long ball hit and hope. Doing that handed the initiative to the opposition, I hate to say it but putting Binnon-Williams in front of Muggleton made our left side an easy option for Harrogate, 

meaning our opponents were firing in crosses every time they got the ball into that area of the pitch.

Sorry but Sam Muggleton getting a game must be the most glaring example of "Jobs for the Boys" that we have ever seen on the pitch at the club, sorry but he's got a long throw and that's it, if his dad wasn't on the sidelines he would never have been signed.

he could not stop Harrogate from getting  crosses in, and that's what he is there to do, Binnon-Williams wasn't good enough defensively either and neither of them could get to the ball to stop the ball coming over.. 

Lee Shaw who we signed from Grantham Town has not scored yet and doesn't look like doing so either, he's got some pace but that's about it.

Stadium Approach

The referee found 7 minutes of injury time which wasn’t unfair as 30 seconds are added on for every sub, there were injuries and our keeper decided to have a sit down and a rest to slow things up, however since Harrogate scored in the 98^th minute and then the ref immediately blew for time, one would have to question his timekeeping.

For many fans of the Blues the long throw from Muggleton routine has passed it’s sell by date, every team in the league knows what is coming and the ball virtually never goes to a Chesterfield shirt. So it’s really a dilemma that the manager has placed himself into, with player selections and purchases, which type of game does he go for?  It’s also not great to hear an opposition manager such as Paul Doswell on Tuesday at Sutton saying that frankly our tactics are poor and they were by far the better side.  Oh well onto the magic of the FA Cup, who knows if we can fashion a couple of chances against Billericay?

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Amazing tackle at Halifax

It was one of the greatest runs I’ve ever seen on a football pitch from one end to the other with no opponent able to get near him, with an amazing body swerve, he was certainly my Man of the Match; no not Zavon Hines, the streaker at Halifax!

For those foolish souls who pay to watch their football on the TV, rather than actually go to the match they missed the highlight of the season so far, as I believe the powers that be decided to avoid showing the amazing tackle on display at Halifax and cut to other scenes, such as football. Now we’ve all seen exhibitionists encroach on the field of play at sporting events, which schoolboy of my generation could ever forget the magnificent Erica Roe, who flaunted her assets at a Rugby Union game?

But this guy, the Halifax Streaker, has taken the art to a new level with the game at 0-0, he sprinted out of the home end wearing nothing but a broad grin and put up a fair pace, slowed down a little near the half way line, did an aeroplane gesture, and with no stewards looking like they wanted to intervene, clambered on to the top of the turnstiles, saluted the crowd and made his exit over the wall, completely starkers onto the streets of Halifax accompanied by a round of applause from the Grandstand.

I only hope he had an accomplice armed with a spare set of clothes and a getaway car, woe betide the impromptu streaker who forgets to leave any spare togs near the scene of his indecency. But who was that unmasked man? Surely someone in West Yorkshire must know him? Perhaps he could liven up subsequent fixtures in this division

It’s been a long time since I went to Halifax Town as they used to be, these days ground sharing with rugby league the place has been spruced up, street signs advertise the fact that you are going to Shay Stadium, I thought that was in New York? Didn’t the Beatles play Shay Stadium once? Anyway, bad puns aside, I paid twenty quid to nearly see a football match, yes the delights of the tv crews turning up meant that we were on one half of the old main stand, with a camera gantry right in front of us and the main one on the halfway line blocking out one corner of the pitch. 

You could nearly see both goals if you strained your neck a bit, surely a bit of stadium management could have solved this, why didn’t we just get the big terrace behind the goal? 

Anyone got any hedge clippers?

It was a good header by Tom Denton though, 1-1 fair result, I thought.

Zavon Hines was clearly our best player, he's obviously coming back from injury, Joe Rowley is playing well back in his midfield role, and the rest well they worked hard. We nearly scored with a header against the bar in the first half and an early kick off the line by Halifax, both from our long throw routine, but apart from that, the first period was forgettable. With fresh legs in midfield Chesterfield could turn draws into wins, but its going to be a long, long season.

Did you see yourself on TV?

https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/sport/football/local/streaker-livened-up-my-barely-adequate-view-of-chesterfield-draw-1-9397007 

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Crazy Ref

You know you’re in a rubbish league and your team is hopeless when….

your player gets sent off and then the decision is rescinded by a linesman. The most exciting thing from the game against Fylde was the “dismissal” of Weston. It had many in the stands either scratching their heads or laughing at the referee’s antics.

The decision of the referee Joe Hull to overturn his own red card was bizarre and not something I’d seen before, for me it was handball by Weston and a foul, although it was outside the box

The infringement actually happened, before the linesman had even put his flag up for offside, so if the linesman hasn’t put his flag up how does the referee even know that there was an offside? So the referee overturned his own decision based on something that he did not even know about, with that sort of foresight or hindsight he should be on Blackpool sea front telling fortunes rather then trying to be a referee. I can’t see the assessor giving Mr Hull a glowing report

You also know you’re in a rubbish league when…your long ball team looks like it’s never going to score and its only tactic is to try and find the head of your giant striker. The opposition knows this and simply fouls Tom Denton by shirt pulling at every opportunity, the referee simply ignores the fact that the blatant shirt pulling and wrestling is going on. This leaves Tom Denton with only 2 options;

A Learn to dive, yes England got penalties at the World Cup, but Harry Kane still had to go down in the box when being wrestled from a corner

B Get the club to cut the seams of his shirt and stick it back together with Velcro, so as soon as an opposition defender grabs his kit it will come off and it will be fairly obvious that shirt pulling was going on. Mind you even if that happened, referee Joe Hull might have called it offside, who knows?

Yes Martin Allen was right to go nuts because we really should have had a penalty or maybe two, but with only 3 chances created in 90 minutes of football, we aren’t going to win many games. The midfield looked more stable playing in a different formation, Joe Rowley put in a good shift and we didn’t suffer an embarrassment like in the last 2 home games, but the crowd is starting to dwindle and even season ticket holders aren’t attending anymore. The official attendance was just over 4,000, but many fans are expressing doubts that this was the true figure inside the ground, oh for a win….

Are Chesterfield's Players Mentally Damaged?

Apparently our players are mentally damaged, according to the manager, mind you he's called Mad Dog anyway, so he should know.  Perhaps we can sign some sane players to save us from a third relegation on the trot.

Gozie Ugwu who was going to be our goal scorer this season got 2 in the net for Borehamwood on Saturday, he was loaned out having lost his confidence at the Proact. I’d assume he’s feeling quite cheerful at the moment, presumably they have someone to pass him the ball in the penalty area.

Fans conducting a poll online have come up with some interesting results, most feel that the club should have a proper scouting network set up, there’s a feeling that Martin Allen is ringing up his mates in football to find players and frankly it has led to some frankly odd signings. It’s no coincidence that we signed some of the best players ever seen at the Proact with Paul Mitchell looking for talent, I was greatly concerned when Danny Wilson said that he was surplus to requirements. 

Also the fitness of the team seems to be a real concern or maybe we have just got slow players? It was no surprise that with a full time fitness coach the team used to be much better.

Fans also seem to be of the opinion that the club might as well give Martin Allen a chance because if we got someone else in then the same situation would happen all over again. Also a lot of people polled suggest that the manager should be given funds to sign 4 or 5 new players, frankly the ones he has signed aren’t performing or aren’t good enough. The blame and fault lies at Allen’s door and at least he’s big enough to admit it, however a third successive relegation would lead to oblivion for the club. Look at Stockport County a team we used to play regularly, they had the plugs pulled financially and look where they ended up. How many of our fans would buy a season ticket to watch National League north football?

Continuing our tour of places we hoped we’d never have to go to Marc Antoine Fortune’s second half goal may have saved Martin Allen’s job, but then again last time we went away and drew, many thought we had turned the corner only to endure two absolute horror show in the week shipping six goals in 2 games to Gateshead and Maidenhead

Maidstone United away

A few statistics are horribly being touted round fans web boards this week, we’re actually not on Chesterfield FCs longest ever non-winning run in history. This 11 games sequence is puny compared to our 21 game winless sequence in 1999 – 2000 which did see the blues relegated, mind you that was in the third tier of English football, so you can argue that this is our worst ever effort.

We are so bad we can't beat Dover

We're so bad it's unbelievable. 

Martin Allen says that the rot has stopped after a 0-0 draw with Dover who have the division’s worst defence. Ok The Blues had chances and hit the bar and post in the dying seconds but the opinion amongst the fans is the performance and style of play and general inability to string passes together is cause for real concern. Chesterfield managed to play well for the first 15 minutes of the second half and then again for the last 5 minutes, which is not enough to win matches.

This week’s depressing statistic is it’s now 481 minutes since Chesterfield managed to score a goal in the non-league, we actually managed not to let a goal in, although our defence did grant the now obligatory free header to the opposition, Dover were actually so bad with only one man up front, they could barely mount an attack for the majority of the game.

This is terrible....

It’s rather depressing when the biggest cheers of the game were for when Dover put on their Ghanian substitute Nortei Nortey, a man whose name must have commentators salivating for a yellow or red card awarded against him. Purely for comic effect I only wish he could play on the same team as French defender Rod Fanni or former Sunderland and West Brom player Bernt Haas.

So where now? The club has a bid in for a player we can only hope it’s either a midfielder who can pass the ball or a striker who can make a goal for himself out of nothing. Fans are currently debating exactly what our best line up is or even if we have players who can fit into each position or even if there is any line up which can possibly work. 

You have to have some sympathy for Gozie Ugwu, It seems that Martin Allen placed faith in our striker who has never yet hit the net for Chesterfield, it’s just not working for him. When Ugwu actually tried a shot from 30 yards there were fans in the west stand sarcastically cheering the fact that he’d had an attempt on goal, it’s 10 games and no goals so far for Ugwu in our colours. The only alternative is to replace him with Marc Antoine Fortune who has never been prolific as a striker either.

Let’s not forget that Martin put together a side that he claimed at the start of the season were good enough to get promoted, well that’s gone and now it looks like he’s onto plan B. The only player that’s shown consistency is Charlie Carter and we haven’t won since he was injured, hopefully his return will instigate a revival.