An afternoon which begun with so much promise in the blistering South Yorkshire sunshine soon turned into another predictable, pedestrian and utterly lethargic away performance by Martin Ling's side. Our first visit to the New York Stadium was an embarrassment for all connected with the club. A quick word on the stadium, i was very impressed with it. It is miles better than Chesterfield's ground and the stands were extremely steep giving a great view all round and the pies were superb ( i say pies, i only had the one, i left the rest for when Steve Evans comes back!
). I parked in a street i know near the old Millmoor ground and walked down.
There isn't really much point in doing a match report because there was only one team playing and wanting to win, we did nothing.
Poke: 7 Don't quite know what happened with the mix up for the goal but he again made some assured saves and i think he's a solid keeper.
Nico: 1 Distribution was poor all game and got into some promising positions only to deliver some shockingly bad crosses. Got skinned time and again by their winger.
Saah: 4 Solid enough but looked leggy
Downes: 2 Looked like bambi on ice for half the game swinging at clearances, mis hitting them and should have been sent off for three dubious challenges, one of which he was booked for. Shocking.
Oastler: 8 Always available, worked tirelessly, getting in blocks and challenges and was the only one who could be arsed to get forward. Made some great runs from inside his own half which generally culminated in a tepid shot. Maybe if some of his team mates offered to help him out then we might have had more joy.
Craig: 6 Worked hard and looked for opportunities to pass but nobody was available.
Mansell: 4 Can't even really say he worked hard. Nowhere near the attacking threat he was last season. He'd be lucky to hit 3 or 4 the way we play.
Bodin: 1 I though he was supposd to be good. He's like a more ineffective Danny Stevens. Got trickery but does nothing with it. Loses the ball, GOES NOWHERE. No running at defenders, no shooting on site. ZERO. ZILCH. Same at Vale. Totally bereft of any attacking threat. We may as well have had 10 men.
Stevens: 3 Started well, a few good runs but fizzled out rapidly.
Morris: 6 Worked hard, tried to encourage the others, let down by his team mates.
Howe: 1 Carthorse today. Strutted around and offered nothing.
Thompson (sub) 4: Made some good runs to the byeline but we had nobody in the box on all occasions when the cross came in. Shockingly bad at reading the bounce and direction of the ball. Hopefully that will improve with experience.
Jarvis (sub) 1: The point was? Not having a go at Jarvo as he hadn't a hope in hell of creating anything just by the way we played. More a dig at Ling for bringing him on thinking he could ever make a difference.
Ling: 2 Never usually rate the manager but today he was sat down in the dugout for the duration. No animation, no encouraging and no communication. His tactics were so predictable yet again and the only saving grace is that we haven't yet been humiliated in our scorelines this season. If we continue to play like this then it's around the corner.
Like Ben and a few others say, we are paying money to watch this and there is a time and a place for a backs to the wall, defensive approach to games but to go out EVERY BLOODY GAME and do it as a tactic is unacceptable. We have to start going out to try and win games becasue at the moment if we conced first than we're f*cked because we don't create more than 2 chances in a game in order for us to turn it around. There is no plan B and because of that we will not make it above mid table this season. We will be more than safe because we can grind out draws by playing this system and will accumulate points but we'll not get nowhere near enough wins to keep tabs with the leading pack.
Also a few comments that i heard from home fans leaving the stadium, one commented on how poor we were and that they could have had five or six, another commented on how bad we were and that we only had one chance. Sadly i had to agree with them.
I have flu and felt like sh*t yesterday but at least those beer bottles Ben brought me made the trip worthwhile! Cheers Ben! We created a good atmosphere yesterday. Hopefully we can stuff the spireites in two weeks.
