By John Taylor
After the slip-up against Aldershot at the end of February, a trip to a struggling side is probably just what the doctor ordered and so Cheltenham was an ideal fixture to kick-off March. On a day when Mr Sheridan won the dreaded Manager of the Month award, a decent away following was in good voice pre-match and was surprised to see Wade Small back in the side, whilst Derek Niven returned, but new signing Andy Whing was given a place on the bench. The home side began the more lively of the sides and had an effort which flicked the bar whilst Town's sporadic raids lacked real conviction. After half an hour, the game had 0-0 written all over it. Ten minutes later, however, Gray set up Small for a run into the Robins' box and the Londoner was bundled over for a clear penalty. Conlon converted with aplomb to give us a slightly fortunate lead.
Big Barry was spot on at Whaddon Road
The second half had a similar pattern to the first, though with a little more intensity. Lee pushed an Elito header onto the bar and Whaley forced a save from Brown but both sides really lacked any assurance around the box whilst both defences looked resolute. The last 10 minutes got fairly frantic with a header onto the top of our bar and some last ditch stuff from Page, Breckin and Goodall, all in the same incident to protect the lead. In truth, the home side didn't look likely to score and we kept up our fine record of not having conceded at Whaddon Road. This took us to third in the table and things were looking rosy.
The next game was, though, a real test at Meadow Lane against a Pies side in a fine run of form despite their much-publicised off-field difficulties. Over 1500 Town fans made the short trip south to witness a tight game from 2 serious promotion challengers. County began the brighter but we soon responded and as the seriousness of our challenge became apparent, so did County's antics, especially from Hughes. A certain robustness in their play was also evident which resulted in 5 yellow cards to our 2 and a sending to the stands for Mr Sheridan after the interval. This was in stark contrast to Saturday when the Cheltenham game saw not 1 booking. Almost inevitably, the game was settled by a Town error on 20 minutes which saw a hasty Lee clearance sliced by Goodall, not won by Page and despatched exquisitely by the excellent Ben Davies. We did create chances, but again looked tentative in front of goal with Whaley missing the best of our openings.
John Sheridan sent tot he stands at Meadow Lane
The disappointment of this defeat did not prepare us for what was to come.
Port Vale were next in town, hoping to improve on their record of 6 straight defeats at Saltergate. From the off Vale looked strong, pacy and threatening whilst we look lacklustre at best. It came as no surprise that the visitors took the lead on 19 minutes when a Breckin error presented the ball to Taylor. He advanced without meaningful challenge and smashed the ball into the bottom corner from 20 yards, giving Lee no chance. Despite further Vale pressure we should have been back in the game 5 minutes before the break as Rundle missed an open goal from 3 yards out, which rather summed up the day. We were punished for this just before half time as Richards fired in from an acute angle, being fed by Davies' free-kick, after Whing (on his full debut) was strangely penalised and booked for seemingly nothing.
Marc Richards kept the Saltergate ball after grabbing three well taken goals
The resumption saw Small actually muster a shot but within a few minutes Richards had scored again with a fierce shot from the edge of the box. Shortly afterwards, Boden and Madine came on for Rundle and Small, improving our performance somewhat from abysmal to moderately ordinary for around 10 minutes. Eleven minutes from time Richards headed in his hat-trick with seemingly no defenders within 10 yards of him and Lee having no chance of saving. Worse was to follow 4 minutes later as a quick Vale attack saw a clumsy challenge by Goodall on Davies with the defender dismissed and Davies converting for Vale's fifth to round off a thoroughly embarrassing day. It was our worst home defeat since September 1976 when Wrexham hammered us 6-0. Like that game, the score did not flatter the visitors. Vale were excellent and we were simply inept and seemingly without fight.
A week later we were at Burton Albion, scene of an easy victory earlier in the season in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. Again, with such a close fixture, Town fans were out in number and hoping that the form of the Vale game could be turned around. Four changes were seen in the team from that against Vale with loan signing Ishmel Demontagnac from Blackpool in for Simon Whaley (injured), Kevin Austin in for Alan Goodall (suspended), Barry Conlon in for Adam Rundle (injured) and Danny Boshell in for Derek Niven (also injured). The first half hour lacked real quality or threat as neither side looked either comfortable or confident and this was reflected in the opening goal on 34 minutes. Small made ground on the right and put in a rather hopeful cross which neither keeper nor centre half dealt with. Demontagnac was on hand for the simplest of goals on his debut. Five minutes later it was all square as we failed with 3 attempts to make positive clearances and Penn pounced to score from 15 yards out.
Scot celebrates what everyone thought would be the winner against the Brewers
Town started the second half in more lively fashion with Demontagnac hitting the post and Small close to capitalising on the rebound as keeper Krysiac made a routine save. The ineffective Conlon was withdrawn for Boden after 12 minutes of the half and said substitute livened up the proceedings five minutes later as he latched onto Small's pass to beat 3 defenders and the Polish keeper with a cracking goal. The young man's celebrations with the Town contingent behind the goal earned him a booking, but he appeared unconcerned. The remainder of the game was characterised by lots of substitutions, scrappy play and Town defending too deep and failing to keep the ball. On a rare raid, Demontagnac hit the side netting. A couple of minutes from time saw a right wing cross from Burton and this drifted out for a goal kick as Whing and Pearson challenged in the middle. Mr Kettle saw something that most people missed and awarded the Brewers a penalty. Tommy Lee saved it in magnificent fashion for what should have been a match-winning moment. It was not to be as we went to sleep 20 seconds from the end of 5 minutes injury time to concede a soft equaliser from a throw in on the half way line: not very professional. This was a real blow and felt very much like a defeat. We were all very deflated on the mercifully short trip home.
The final action of the month had Hereford United in town for their last visit to the Rec and looking for their first point since September 1983 when they managed a goalless draw. Given Town's recent form and the Bulls' 8 successive defeats at Saltergate, it was pretty obvious what the result would be. Despite 3 changes to the team at Burton, including the surprise recall of Phil Picken and Andy Whing playing in the middle, we were unconvincing and lifeless. The first half was a tame affair with little of Spireite note except Allott's exquisite through ball to Small who ballooned his shot into Cross Street. Lee made a couple of decent stops as the visitors had more of the play.
Early in the second half Pugh's raid into our box was halted by Picken's less-than-robust challenge, but the referee saw fit to award a penalty. Jervis converted, though Lee nearly got it. On 63 minutes in was 2-0 as Pugh waltzed through a static defence to score with ease. Hereford then went into brainless mode as Jervis was lucky to stop on the pitch. He stood a couple of feet from the ball as we were about to take a free-kick and was booked. A couple of minutes later, having been given offside, the same player kicked the ball away, but the referee did his Nelson bit and let the forward off. With 10 minutes left we were thrown a lifeline, to use another seafaring reference, as daft defending bundled Rundle down in the box and Conlon netted the spot kick. That briefly geed us up until 5 minutes later when Demontagnac set up Conlon for a tap-in but the effort seemed too much for the Irishman and his scuffed effort was hacked away. We gave up then and the Bulls returned home with only their second win at Chesterfield.
So, on the field, the month ended in really dispiriting fashion. Off it, work continued apace on the new stadium whilst we appointed a new director in the form of Ashley Carson. Paul Harsley went to York City, Lloyd Kerry went to Kidderminster Harriers and Gary Madine returned to Brunton Park, having been disappointing in his brief stay in North Derbyshire. The manager kept getting into trouble with officialdom and received 2 touchline bans in the month as well as his February Manager of the Month award-must be some kind of weird record.
New face in the boardroom Ashley Carson
Talking of weird records, the ineptitude of our recent form is interestingly illustrated by the fact that, in our last 2 games, we haven't even managed to win a single corner. This run of form is very worrying and, despite the fact that we are still occupying a play-off berth, we look like a side whose next win will be about next October. To go from the assured professional display at Crewe a month ago to the nervy, static, rabbit-in-the-headlights performances of late is a remarkably dramatic achievement. It looks like the b2net will start its life as a basement stadium after all.
Tommy Lee save at Burton one of the highlights of poor March
Highlights in a depressing month were not too many, but Goodall's life-threatening clearance at Cheltenham and Boden's magnificent goal at Burton stand out, though the real highlight was Tommy Lee's penalty save in the same game. He performed consistently well in a month when most players were dreadful and I hope he has nothing to do for the rest of the season and we turn our form around, starting with leaders Rochdale in our first April fixture. I can hope, but I'm not holding my breath.
