"The facts don't lie, we've lost another away game. But as ever, such a simple statement does not tell the story. This time it was genuinely more annoying than the washouts at Burton and Rochdale, because on another day we could quite easily have got something from the meanest home side in the country.
It was, this time a lack of something in the final third, which has rarely been a problem this season that was our downfall on this occasion. Chesterfield were not on their game and we dominated them in the first half, though we just couldn't create anything clear cut.
It can't be just down to fluke that Chesterfield have built such a solid base at home, they had to show different qualities when faced against a side with decent attacking options such as ours, as opposed to demolitions of Burton and Macclesfield in weeks past. They repelled our attacks well with a strong defensive wall. Albert Adomah had the better of their left back however, consistently coming up trumps against him on the right hand side. It was therefore odd that we didn't exploit this even further considering he was on a booking early on after a late challenge having been skinned again.
At the other end we played similarly well in thwarting the Spireites. Jack Lester barely saw anything of the ball in the danger area and it was down to departing left winger Donal McDermott to take the home fans' plaudits. The on loan youngster was pacy, tricky and clearly had an abundance of skill. He caused problems for us and was adored by the Saltergate crowd.
That said, there was only one real big chance in the game, and the home side took it. Really frustrating, but that one lapse at the back cost us dear, as it will do at this level. When you play badly and get beaten you can just hold your hands up and say, ""fair enough, we weren't good enough, you deserved to win"", but when you've played admirably it's a little harder to swallow. And when the dust settles and the number in the L column has accumulated again, it all turns a little sour.
Still, it's nothing to get too down about, especially from our point of view. Three home games coming up, of which more later, and a great night out in prospect after a decent day in the town too. Drinks were consumed early on accompanied by Arsenal's defeat of Tottenham, having eventually found a pub around Chesterfield's picturesque town centre that had a form of television inside.
It was something of a jovial mood on the terrace then. It was pretty warm for the end of October and a little bit of chanting took place. Not much you understand, you can't get much going on an open terrace. Fantastic ground mind you, another one of the old school that will soon be sadly lost.
See the Burton trip a few weeks ago for a similar description of what we got up in the evening. Students put on good night's entertainment, that's for sure.
Anyway, three home games coming up with one of them against Darlington in the cup. We beat them last week, remember? We should do this again shouldn't we? We're something of a force at home and whilst we were perhaps flattered by the 3-0 scoreline, this is a very winnable cup tie.
Also winnable are the league games that follow. Port Vale are improving gradually and Hereford are something of a bogey side for us, though we are still strong enough to realistically believe that six points are on the agenda. I'm sure Ian Hendon will expect nothing less as we look to return to the track and keep ourselves right involved at the top."
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