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?

http://www.thecfss.co.uk/forums/index.php?showforum=3

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 

http://www.thecfss.co.uk/forums/index.php?showforum=3

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.

Chesterfield FC, The end of an Error? Or the start of a bright new slump?

So that's it, it's all over Chesterfield FC is no longer a Football League club, it's been a 3 year long balls up. Jack Lester, Nicky Eaden and Tommy Wright have all gone, whether they walked or if they were pushed is academic.

Looking at both ends of the league table makes a sorry sight and a sobering thought on how to run a football club, nobody said it was ever an easy thing to do, but when it goes well you take the credit when it goes pear shaped you should be big enough to take the flak.

Accrington Stanley are up and should be worthy champions and may proudly display the trophy at the Wham stadium and no doubt dine out on an McDonalds takeaway and £1 pint from their pub. Meanwhile at The Proact maybe the players could run out to the Death March or maybe “It’s Over” by Roy Orbison might be more appropriate.

Thrashed at the Wham "Stadium"

How did Accy do it with their limited budget, reported in the national press, of £15k per week to run the club and a massive crowd of over 3,000 to see them make it to League One? Well their manager John Coleman certainly knows how to pick a player and fit them into a simple system that works. They play 442, with an excellent right winger, 2 decent forwards and a team that works hard. Their main striker Billy Kee, who scored against us in both games, suffers from depression and was considering quitting football at one point, let’s hope he can crack a smile at their end of season do.

Our financially lop-sided team was initially recruited by Guy Branston and Gary Caldwell and despite recent additions still can’t fit into any formation, so we are at the bottom of the table.

Meanwhile our esteemed leader Ashley “Promotion is the only option” Carson recently said that Jack Lester is to stay at the Proact even if we get relegated-however Lester is now not at the club due to getting relegated.

I’ve lost count of how many “mistakes” have been made in the last 4 years, from not faxing the FA regards our on-loan centre back playing in the FA Cup, to Sally Swain’s recent departure, perhaps there’s someone out there who could compile a full list? Or just the Top 20 chart rundown of off-field cock-ups would do.

This is Phil Tooley's take on things http://d3d4football....by-phil-tooley/

Here goes, eyes down for a full house

1 Set up a club with too many employees

2 Have it reliant on cash flow involving selling young players on a regular basis, what if you have no-one to sell? What if you sell your best player with 2 days of the transfer window left and no time to replace him?

3 Employing Chris Turner and making sure the people who previously ran the club are ushered out of the door.

4 Promising the fans a 5 year plan, which would get the club to Championship

5 Employing a great manager in Paul Cook, but financially pulling the plug, so that we could not sign enough quality players to get to the Championship

6 Being involved in a scandal whereby someone at either Wolves or Chesterfield forgot to fax the FA about us playing a loan player. Chesterfield had to replay a cup tie, Wolves were not punished, draw your own conclusions.

7 Allowing Chris Turner on the radio sounding worse for wear. Allowing Chris Turner to say "This club does not make mistakes"

8 Alienating your fans, asking for regular attendances of 7,000, getting more than that and inferring it's the fans' fault the club does not have enough money

9 Having a fire sale of all your best players as soon as Paul Cook leaves

10 Employing Dean "3 relegations on my CV" Saunders after he impressed the Chairman at an after dinner speech and not interviewing other candidates properly, we may as well have employed Bernie Clifton.

11 Allowing Saunders to spend most of the budget on crocked players, such as Ebanks-Blake on their way down the career ladder

12 Under Danny Wilson allowing Paul Mitchell , the head of player recruitment, to leave and not replacing him

13 Signing Ched Evans, a man who would face a public court case, 3 months into his contract. The club slid down the table as soon as he was on trial.

14 Not allowing Wilson funds to sign a decent central midfielder to go alongside Jon Nolan

15 Giving Wilson the elbow and having to pay him off, only to put Gary Caldwell in charge, a man who had previously won League One, but was given the boot from Championship side Wigan who were about to be relegated.

16 Gary Caldwell having to sign a group of under performing rejects from other clubs in the January transfer window, as he had little budget, what with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake still raking in the cash whilst not being played-we get relegated to League 2

17 Liam Graham fielded as an ineligible player in the reserves, under a false name, he is easily identified

18 Starting up a youth academy which then goes bust in dubious circumstances, despite fans warning the club not to employ the people who they put in charge-An FA investigation is ongoing. Allowing Chris Turner at a public meeting to make a fool of himself, basically saying he did little to check the backgrounds of the people involved.

19 Relations between those running the club and fans going from bad to worse. One fan sends offensive messages to club employees, he claims to be warned off when someone knocks on his door, true or not? it is never denied by the club

20 Gary Caldwell then employs Steve Eyre as assistant, he doesn't last long and Caldwell replaces him with Graham Barrow.

21 Caldwell allowed a fresh start, in League 2 he gets Guy Branston in to recruit players. Despite Branston having made a mess of Notts County the previous season. County fans warn us of impending doom.

22 The club announce that Chris O'Grady has been signed and is our highest paid ever player on a reported £4,000 a week. No pressure then on O'Grady, a respected player, but one who has a career record of only 10 goals a season.

23. The team go immediately to the bottom of the entire league as Caldwell insists on playing 3-5-2 despite getting regularly beaten and it being obvious he and Branston have recruited a lop-sided squad with too many journey men midfielders, no decent full backs and little pace, many from the same agent.

24 Caldwell sacked, meaning Chesterfield is now paying off the last 3 managers and all their backroom staff.

25 Ex Player Jack Lester employed as manager he starts off brightly, but soon injuries take their toll and he has to compile half a new team in the dreaded January window, picking up a couple of decent players, but also cast-offs and crocks. He can't get the team to perform on a regular basis, there seems to be no winning formula to a team formation. We get relegated out of the league.

Fun times at Grimsby

Of course many fans would like the club to be sold. The ominous thing for us is that it may be a consortium of convenience with Ashley Carson. Mr Carson has said that there’s an interested consortium who want to buy Chesterfield. They’ve shaken hands but no deal is finalised, they speak regularly and have already appointed a Director of Football, if nothing is finalised by the final whistle of the season then the club will walk away from the deal. Based on what Mr Carson has previously said publicly and then contradicted, who knows what lies ahead?

The only ray of sunshine this season

But there's always new hope, next season we can get thrashed by more village teams, as the new season budget is £1m for players, which is average for the national league. Can someone ring up John Coleman at Accrington and see how he does it?