Chesterfield 1 County 1

County gain a valuable away point in the rain at Chesterfield, thanks to another Dickinson goal. Chesterfield equalised, but a draw was overall a fair result, with Logan making some decent saves in the second half to ensure that we returned with a point. Report by Caz

Left	Ahead	Right

As always, click on the pictures for bigger versions

Finally the day dawned.  The first away game of the season.  I always prefer away matches and this one was to be even more enjoyable as this is the first coach in 3 years that I wasn’t responsible for since handing over the reins to Andy Plant.  So, after a leisurely breakfast in front of Soccer AM me and Mart wandered up the A6 towards Edgeley.  It was a beautiful morning and as we meandered along, Mart commented “isn’t that your Mum and Dad?”  “Eh?  Shouldn’t think so?” I replied.  It was only after squinting at the silver car parked up ahead of us that I spotted my Mum in the passenger seat looking a little disgruntled.  Oops!  We scuttled over to the car, gratefully accepted the lift to the Bobby and apologised for being gormless.  “I couldn’t find my horn as I drove past”, explained my Dad.  “I put the windscreen wipers on instead!”  Obviously it runs in the family.

As we pulled up outside the Bobby, there were already quite a few familiar faces sitting in the beer garden.  The coach had arrived and the driver was enjoying a cup of tea outside with us.  It was sold out too which is standard for the first trip of the season.  We all clambered aboard and waited for Terry H to show his face.  He was running late as he thought we were leaving at 11:00 not 10:45.  Yellow card for you, sir!

It is a very picturesque journey to Chesterfield and we made good time.  We were the first coach to arrive at the ground and immediately set off to the nearest pub.  The Industry looked to be heaving so we charged into the Chesterfield Arms next door.  We were merrily slurping our drinks and putting the world to rights when the bar woman rang the bell.  Huh?  It was 2pm.  What does that mean?  We asked a friendly looking local.  He explained that it was last orders on police advice and that we would have to vacate by 2:15 and head for the ground.  He agreed that it was a ridiculous decision and that there’d been fans of other clubs who had turned up and caused loads of trouble yet were allowed to stay in there until 2:45?!  We’d been no trouble at all.  Madness.  Plus, it was raining outside and the standing terrace has no roof.  Surely a bit of common sense could have been employed?  No trouble + rain + no roof = let us stay in the pub a bit longer?  But no, in came the police and instructed the bar staff to get us out.  Some of our crowd took this as a sign to head off to the town centre in search of an open pub.  I didn’t see the point as by the time we’d found somewhere and bought a drink it would be time to head back again.  So off to the ground we trudged.

Warm up	Pub	Match Action

I’ve always said that I prefer old grounds that have character to these new fangled stadiums, but Christ on a bike this place needs some repairs!  I don’t think it’s seen so much as a paint brush since the 1960’s??  Although, I am a huge fan of the standing terrace (I do prefer them with roofs, mind!) and we headed off to pick our spot. 

It was something of a culture shock as it is rare for me to see the kick off.  Today I was in time to see the warm up!  To be honest, it’s not all that exciting.  I’d have preferred a pint.  It was fun to air the new Proudlock chant though, “Nice cup of tea with Adam Proudlock” was greeted by a chuckle and a thumbs up from the man himself, which we followed up with “He has two sugars in his tea”.  All the while it continued to drizzle, the rain blowing into our faces.  I actually had an umbrella in my bag but thought it inconsiderate to put it up as I was bound to block someone’s view / poke someone’s eye out, etc.  I settled for putting my hood up instead.  And we waited for the game to start.  And we waited.  And got damper.

After what felt like an age, the players came out through the tunnel of cheerleaders.  I say cheerleaders, but basically they were kids in lycra wafting pom poms about.  They didn’t do anything the regulars from the Peels on Wheels couldn’t have done.  Except for squeeze into lycra perhaps….. 

It was an unchanged side to last week that took to the field, with County defending the goal in front of the away fans in the first half.  Now, I don’t know why I volunteered to write this match report as by the time we kicked off I was thoroughly fed up.  I actually glanced at my phone at one point to see how long there was to go until half time.  It was only 3.15.  This is what happens when you get into the ground too early.  So, in summary, Chesterfield had the better of things in the first half.  Lester in particular was being a total nuisance, putting himself about, mouthing off to the ref, generally getting on the away fans tits.  “F*** off Lester” we chanted which was greeted with an icy stare.   “He’s bound to score” we muttered.  Isn’t football predictable sometimes?  That said, at half time we went in at 0-0 and it was something of a relief.  It was a combination of good defending and sheer luck that kept us on level pegging.  We’d had a few chances ourselves, don’t get me wrong.  And McNeil and Elding were linking up nicely, but Chesterfield were proving to be much more intimidating opposition than Daggers had been the week before.

Defending	Wet away end	County press

I sat down on the terrace while I waited for second half and was joined by a gleeful Phil Robbie.  He told me how one of our party hadn’t been allowed into the ground as he’d spectacularly fallen over in front of some stewards sending his glasses bouncing down the road.  It took three men to right him, two to pick him up and one to retrieve his specs.  Assuming he’d had one too many the stewards had turned him away at the turnstile.  Obviously we were all sympathetic *snigger*

Second half kicked off with the same County personnel as the first.  We were making a battle of it but Chesterfield are a big, physical side which was making it hard for us.  After 15 minutes or so, Jim bought on super sub Liam Dickinson who hadn’t been on the pitch long when he fired in a bullet header past the despairing Roche.  The Blue Army went mental!  Unfortunately, Dicko had clashed heads with one of their players when going for the ball and was on his hands and knees on the turf.  Roger Wylde led him away to stitch him up.  Whilst jogging off Liam gave the travelling army the thumbs up, using the hand that wasn’t holding the cloth stemming the flow of blood.  Legend.

I didn’t watch the game for the next few minutes as my eyes were firmly focused on the players tunnel.  Sure enough, after 5 minutes Liam came charging out ready to come back on again.  The ref waved him back on and he had only been back on the pitch a couple of minutes when one of the Chesterfield players hacked him down unfairly.  He was in the wars today!   The Spireite got a yellow card and Liam limped up.  Thankfully he was ok.

Then the inevitable.  After County failed to clear the ball following a Chesterfield corner, Lester stuck the ball past the excellent Logan.  Told you so.  The ballboy in front of us lept up to celebrate.  To be fair, he’d been getting stick all afternoon – apparently people had been spitting on him.  Out of order.  I thought County fans were better than that.  The stewards charged over and basically sent him off.  Amused me at the time but since I found out what abuse he’d been taking I feel a bit sorry for him now.

Another County chance	Dicko's just scored	Seated fans celebrate

The last 20 minutes or so I couldn’t possibly tell you about as I spent most of the time with my hood pulled down over my eyes.  It was a tense finish to the game and I could barely bring myself to watch.  But County dug their heels in, defended valiantly, and the ref finally blew for full time leaving us with a point. There was a variety of opinion on the terrace, some saying we were lucky, others saying we could have won.  Personally I thought it was a fair result in the end as both teams had chances to win, both battled hard, and (taking my biased County head off) it would have been a little unfair for one of the teams to lose, much as I wouldn’t have said no to three points!

Just before getting back on the coach I dived into the ladies at the ground.  Anything to avoid using the bog on the bus!  As I flushed the loo, it was with some dismay that I saw the seal on pipe at the back of the toilet was f**ed resulting in bog water flowing freely all over the floor.  In attempt to keep the rancid gushing river of piss off my shoes I attempted to get them in the air.  What I thought I was doing I have no idea.  I’ve never been able to hover.  Instead I ended up doing something of an Irish jig while I frantically tried to unlock the door.  Michael Flatley eat your heart out.  I disconsolately squelched out of the ground and off to find the coach.  There’s a lot to be said for these posh new fangled stadiums you know.

Caz