The first day of the month saw Wycombe in town for an interesting looking encounter with the Chairboys who many fancied pre-season for promotion, particularly with Easter being surprisingly still with them after much talk in the media about potential moves. First half activity was spread from end to end with both Roche and Shearer making good saves whilst both sets of forwards looked less than sharp. The half looked to be drifting towards a goalless status when Town took a just-deserved lead on the balance of play as Niven sent in a daisy-cutter right into the corner after Leven had allowed the ball to run away from him. This proved to be Leven's last contribution as he was replaced at the break by Alan O'Hare.
The second period saw the Irishman link well with Robertson and Winter and the left side operated very effectively as a unit, giving the visitors considerable difficulties both defensively and attack-wise. Overall, though, we were looking confident and much better than Wycombe, though without adding to our tally. On 71 minutes, Adam Rooney, the new loanee replaced Jamie Lowry and soon afterwards we extended the lead as Lester headed in Niven's cross. Wycombe tried to up their game to hit back, but we held firm and could have stretched the lead, but 2-0 is a very satisfying victory.
Next up was Danny Wilson's Hartlepool in the Johnstone's Paint trophy on Tuesday and, given the rules of the thing, we were restricted on resting players and trying out youngsters. We did bring in Allison, Gray, Rooney and Jackson, though, whilst Algar, Williams and Law were all on the bench, so that was a very youthful looking area. Just after the quarter hour, Law replaced a limping Picken for his senior baptism. After much midfield play and few real opportunities, the Monkeyhangers worked a good goal with a defence-splitting pass on 35 minutes with Foley finishing with aplomb. This signalled concerted pressure from the visitors and half-time came as a bit of a relief. This was short-lived, however, as James Brown scored within 5 minutes of the restart and added a third before the hour had gone. Other notable event of the night were a debut by Ben Algar, a nice goal from the Chief on 72 and a cynical piece of "professionalism" by Porter who stopped down in mock agony for long enough to get Lowry booked. I shouted my annoyance at Mr Wilson at this point and he had the good grace to look embarrassed. All-in-all this was not a good night, but it has to be said the Pool looked impressive apart from Porter's objectionable behaviour.
Friday night saw Bury in Town a day early so we didn't clash with England. We were without Rooney and Downes with international call-up, though Steve McClaren didn't come calling for some reason. The visitors were attired in an unusual chocolate brown and sky blue affair which apart from stupid shorts was surprisingly tasteful. Early exchanges generally went the way of the Shakers as Town looked very uneasy and disjointed. We even had the laughable sight of Phil Picken picking up the ball for a throw in before it had rolled out of play. Fortunately the referee saw the funny side of it and Picks escaped without a booking. Algar began to make his presence felt and showed some neat touches before we took the lead on 32 minutes. Fletcher rose, Ernie Moss-like to head in Leven's left wing cross for his first Town goal. All looked to be going swimmingly until the 75th minute when Bury equalised from a right wing cross with Woodthorpe's powerful header giving Roche no chance. The hard-working visitors were now looking on for a creditable draw, but Town's resolve is a little more firm these days and within 90 seconds we'd retaken the lead as Fletcher again headed home, this time from a Picken cross. A largely ineffective Jack Lester completed the scoring with a class swivel and finish after 84 minutes with Fletcher providing the set up. Shortly afterwards, the tiring Ben Algar was substituted and came off to a well-deserved standing ovation. It was a good night all told.
Fletch celebrates his second against the Shakers
Eight days later was the much anticipated trip to Field Mill for the lunchtime kickoff. We weren't allocated 3 sides this time, but were given the other end from the traditional away end. The event began in reflective mode as the "Last Post" was played pre-kickoff as the teams stood, heads bowed in remembrance of Ben Ford from Town and Damien Wright from Mansfield, serving soldiers and friends recently killed in Afghanistan. It sometimes takes something like that to put a game of football into context.
The game got off to a lively start in the sunshine as Robertson's 3rd minute corner went straight into Carl Muggleton's net for his first goal for us. The lead lasted 6 minutes as Dawson smacked in a badly cleared corner from 20 yards with an impressive shot. The rest of the half saw the hard-working Stags side have the bulk of possession, but Town looking more threatening around goal. Lester was looking particularly lively. With 3 minutes of added time elapsed, we retook the lead in scrappy fashion as a left wing cross was stabbed on by Fletcher and the ball seemed to come back off the post for Lowry to pounce for his second goal of the season.
Nearly 3-1 Spireites
The home side were again in the ascendency after the break and Roche was lucky to stop on the field after he felled Boulding outside the box in a 1 on 1 situation. All that saved him was Kovacs fine covering to become the last man. Shortly afterwards Rooney and Downes replaced Lowry and Gray and Mr Richardson attempted to pep up his overrun side. Lester soon had the ball in the net, but his effort was adjudged offside and on 73 minutes, home skipper Buxton was dismissed for felling Rooney. He had to go as he was the last defender and he'd already been booked. Still the Stags came at us and we continued to look disjointed and lethargic. It didn't matter though as 3 minutes into stoppage time Lester stylishly rounded Muggleton, milked the applause the slid the ball home for his 6th goal in as many games. Game over!
Happy Jack
A week on we had the visit of Barnet to enjoy and in their typical fashion they were hard working, impressively organised and very cynical. They worked the referee and linesmen well, we were rubbish and the result was inevitable after about 20 minutes. Once Lester had been flagged for offside when he clearly wasn't, we were never going to break them down. We didn't use the width and became increasingly ragged. Once the Bees had taken a 69th minute lead from Norville's header after Picken had lost the ball, we probably had 10 minutes of football and 11+3 of time-wasting for which not one second was added on. Barnet were masters at stopping down after every challenge, ignoring the ball when it was returned from the crowd and generally having the officials for mugs. We, for our part, weren't sufficiently switched on to do anything about it and even if we'd had the correct amount of added time we'd never have tested keeper Harrison, let alone equalised. This was a game best forgotten.
Oops 1-0 Bee's
To follow this up, we had another not-so-long away trip, this time to Meadow Lane, hardly a happy hunting ground-we last won there in 1972 -our second victory at the ground. Notts were captained by that hugely unpopular Town failure, Jason Lee, who was clearly up for this encounter, using both his height and elbows to good effect. We came closest to a goal after 19 minutes when Leven's free kick went inches wide. A minute later, a rather fortunately awarded free kick to the Pies saw Hunt head in McKenzie's well-judged dead ball to notch what proved to be the winner. We had more of the ball than our hosts but somehow never looked likely to score. Jack Lester looked strangely wayward with his shooting and once Fletcher had gone off injured, our entire threat evaporated. It was that kind of day-Notts County away as usual.
Fletch John's Man of the Month
So, a month that started brightly really ended on a dampener with two 1-0 defeats much in the manner of last season. Even though we won the first 3 league games of the month, to take it to 4 on the trot, we'd performed only in patches and few players were playing consistently on form. Injuries, admittedly disrupted matters and Jamie Ward and the loan chap Travis from the Blades didn't even feature. There certainly appears to be the makings of a decent side, but midfield needs to gel to start the team playing well overall. The blooding of the youngster Algar and Law was certainly a big positive from the month as was Niven's continued tireless box-to-box play. Roche continues to look confident and Robertson is looking better in his defensive shoes to add to his impressive play further up the park. Lowry continues to look good and Lester has got some goals, though not quite finding his touch at all times, but this month he's pipped by Steve Fletcher as man-of-the-month. He scored 2 fine goals and contributed soundly all-round.
Unlike my normal self, I'll end on a very trivial note and ask "when was the last time we went a whole month wearing only our home kit in every game?" I'm excluding the month of May in this and I'll let you all know next month-bet you can hardly wait!
