Relive The Season-February A Month of Few Games
By John Taylor
February brought with it some fairly unusual weather for modern winters which meant that our first 2 fixtures of the month: away at Aldershot Town and at home to Lincoln City were both postponed through a combination of snow and frozen pitches. I managed to take in Malaga v Almeria (3-2) and Spain v England (2-0) and saw some sun as well, but Town action commenced mid-way through the month at Shrewsbury.
An impressiove Spireite Debut at the Prostar from Clayton McDonald
Following Danny Hall's suspension we had new recruit from Manchester City, Clayton McDonald stepping into the breach. New loan signing from Birmingham Jared Wilson was on the bench whilst Scott Boden stood in for the suspended Lester and Alan Goodall was in for Drew Talbot who was ill. The team, therefore, had an unfamiliar look and in consequence was somewhat disjointed. After a few scares, the hosts took the lead on 18 courtesy of Grant Holt's endless cynical professionalism. He had the ball on our left wing with his back to play, stuck his backside into Robertson and dropped like a stone. The linesman instantly flagged for a foul and Jackson headed in Davies' well flighted free kick. We managed a fine equaliser 7 minutes later when a move appeared to have broken down. Boden retrieved the ball from wide on the left, advanced and cut inside and scored with a low shot from the edge of the box giving Daniels no chance. The goal gave us some confidence and we looked livelier after this though the Shrews looked very dangerous, winning several corners which we dealt with resolutely. Lee saved splendidly from Holt when the big man looked favourite to score but the interval came with no further addition to the score.
Just 8 minutes into the second period Shrewsbury retook the lead following a characteristically rash challenge by Goodall on the edge of our box. The excellent Davies stepped up and walloped the ball into the net, despite Lee getting a hand to the shot. The Shrews generally had the better of the remaining exchanges with McDonald immense and determined and Holt unusually profligate. Robertson was unlucky to his the home bar with a free kick, but in truth we were always second best and never looked like scoring an equaliser. Wilson made a low-key debut replacing Gray on 63 minutes.
Next on the cards was the last of the experimental Friday fixtures with Bournemouth featuring the reborn Steve Fletcher, who received a warm welcome from the Saltergate faithful. The team saw the reversal of the necessary changes made for the trip to Shropshire. The often-criticised Gregor Robertson excelled himself on 8 minutes when Feeney burst through and looked certain to score, but the Scot dashed back and made a brilliant challenge in the box to win the ball cleanly just as Feeney was about to pull the trigger. The well-applauded incident clearly buoyed Robertson who probably then had his best game in a Town shirt, tackling with authority and winning numerous headers into the bargain.
Bournemouth were lucky to keep 11 men on the pitch just after the quarter hour and Lester advanced on goal through the inside left channel. Keeper Jalal took him out just outside the box and was very fortunate to see only a yellow card. The referee clearly took note of 2 rapidly retreating Cherries defenders and gave Jalal the benefit of the doubt. Lester made him pay, though, on 37 minutes as he poached in typical fashion from Till's prod after Dan Gray's long throw had been flicked on by Gritton.
The second half saw us start brightly but fade quickly and the last 30 minutes were characterised by almost constant Bournemouth pressure, failure by us to gather and keep the ball and gritty, resolute defending from Downes and Hall in particular. The key moment came 15 minutes from time when substitute Jamie Lowry (scorer of Bournemouth's late equaliser earlier in the season at Dean Court) was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball as Downes high, sliced clearance rolled down his arm. Up stepped Connell to hammer the ball to Lee's right, but the keeper flung himself to save at the expense of a corner-a brilliant save and even better than the against Exeter in the previous home game. The rest of the game was desperate defending and a couple more Lee saves as we held out for a precious win.
The third and final game of the month was a non-too-eagerly anticipated clash with Barnet with the Bees having won 3 of their 5 visits to North Derbyshire. Town suffered a late change with Peter Till getting injured in the warm-up with Alan Goodall replacing him. We had another loan player on the bench with young Morse Stenhousemuir (sorry-Lewis Montrose) coming in from Wigan until the end of the season. The game, much as expected, was a very scrappy affair with neither side retaining sensible possession nor doing much of a constructive bent. Barnet's blatant offside trap did nothing to help the spectacle. The visitors took the lead just after the half hour from their second successive corner as Danny Hall kicked over the ball allowing Breen to set up Yakubu for an easy finish.
Montrose joined the fray fairly early in the second half as Winter sustained a head injury and had to be replaced. Lester had the ball in the net after substitute Currie's set-up but the effort was correctly disallowed. Harrison saved a good header from Gritton on 69 minutes and on 72 minutes Montrose showed his stuff and smacked in a 30-yard shot which Harrison saved superbly at the expense of a corner. From Currie's corner, Downes won the header and Hall atoned for his earlier error to score his first goal for the club. Town then looked momentarily more self-assured and Kerry should have done better when put through, but he looks very short of confidence at the moment in front of goal and Harrison made a decent save. The game petered out to a dismal draw, doing little for the fans' mood or our play-off aspirations.
As an amusing aside, it was reported on national radio that 4 town fans turned up at Brentford, fully clad in blue and white, thinking we were playing at Griffin Park, not at home to Barnet. It's to be hoped that they'd not travelled from town to perpetrate this folly. What planet are they on anyway?
Off the field, we secured the services of 3 loan players already mentioned and Phil Picken is to stay at Meadow Lane for the remainder of the season. The club took ownership of the site for the new ground and work on the overall development began in earnest, though most effort appears to be on the Tesco bit unsurprisingly. One piece of news that seeped out was that Robert Page and Paul Harsley were available for loan should anyone be interested. This seemed to be an open admission that two of the key signings of the summer were failures. From my perspective, Page is the biggest disappointment of any Town player in all my years of watching the club. When his signing was announced I thought we'd bagged the ideal skipper with the experience to sort out our defensive frailties. The reality has been one of lack of leadership, schoolboy errors and an ever worse defence than last season. Is this down to our signing a cynical old has-been who saw us coming in the manner of Mick Kennedy some years ago or is there some other explanation? We'll probably never know and that's, I suppose, a good thing. Harsley, Vale's player of the year last season, has never had a run, which is a mystery, so he's a bit more difficult to attempt to judge.
Tommy spot kick save the highlight of John Month
So, to move onto things more positive and the highlights of the month, which were a bit thin to be truthful. Clayton McDonald's debut at the New Meadow was magnificent as he attacked the ball in a very commanding fashion and deserved not to be on the losing side. Scott Boden's goal was very well executed and Gregor Robertson's performance against Bournemouth was a revelation. The month's highlight though, again goes to Tommy Lee for his penalty save in the same game. This is getting repetitive!
