A Review By John Taylor
The month's action, unusually, commenced on a Friday night owing to an important event in Cardiff on the Saturday. We were faced with the difficult trip to Bradford City with the manager still absent from the bench,but recovering in the stands from a bout of mumps. Much as anticipated, the encounter was difficult, though we took the game to the home side admirably in the first half with Folan holding the ball up well and giving the Bantam's rearguard some trouble without ever quite having the cutting edge.
2-0 City
As it transpired, the failure to strike cost us dear as City netted twice in the last quarter to send us home pointless, mainly thanks to the experienced Windass who still looks very good at this level of football, though still extremely unpopular with opposition fans. Windass got the first and set up Bridge-Wilkinson for the second, so the elusive clean sheet remained to be achieved this season.
Pop Larkin fires home his first Spireite goal against the Cherries
Eight days later, we were confronted with Bournemouth at Saltergate; an opposition troubled by injury but looking to continue a decent run at the Rec, whilst we were looking for our first home success. With Mr Mac back at the helm, the team saw changes with the Chief and Pop as the strikeforce and the combination worked well. Larkin broke his Town duck on 27 minutes with a splendidly finished strike from the edge of the box after Allison had knocked on Roche's long punt. Early in the second half, Larkin repaid the Chief with a fine pass after robbing a ponderous Cherries' defender. Allison made no mistake with a measured left-footer. Even the introduction of Steve Fletcher didn't pep up the Dorset outfit and a fine opportunist free kick by Nicholson wrapped up a comfortable and comprehensive home victory. It was so impressive that I forced myself to have a post match pint-just the one mind!
A week later we were at Bescot where Walsall boss, Paul Merson, did Mr Mac's team talk for him by comparing us to Wimbledon of old, much to our manager's understandable annoyance. At the time, the comments were a mystery, but it has been suggested that he got us mixed up with Colchester who are a little more of that persuasion. After all, it's understandable: 2 Roman towns beginning with "C", both wearing blue and white and not having a big fan base-no wonder Mr Merson was confused.
Mark celebrates his equaliser at the Bescot
Anyway, our 4-5-1 first half formation lulled them into a false sense of security and they took a 2-0 lead with a couple of well-executed goals, somewhat flattering the Saddlers at the break. The change to 4-4-2 for the second half saw a wondrous turnaround with Mark Allott heading in twice from right wing corners and the Chief nutting the winner from a peach of a cross by Nicholson. Even the Walsall post-match traffic failed to dampen our enthusiasm after this fine win.
Our next encounter was against the Monkeyhangers who've enjoyed much recent success against us. They, like Bournemouth, have had injury problems, but then so have we. Blathers missed this one to be replaced by Alan O'Hare. Despite a fine start we went behind to a fine Proctor near-post flicked header and were still trailing at the break. Just like the week before, however, we reversed this with excellent strikes from Larkin, Niven and Hall. Hartlepool just had no answer to our slick, supportive midfield and when they did press, the central defensive pairing of Hazell and O'Hare was magnificent. One O'Hare crunching tackle late in the day drew enthusiastic applause from the home fans as it underlined our dominance on the day. We even had a decent referee, who showed lenient tendencies when an awful tackle by Davies on Tinkler (who himself went in 2-footed) was punished only by a booking. Some officials would have had both of them off.
Paul Hall fires home the third against the Pools
The month's final fixture saw the long trip to Gillingham on a Tuesday night; our first visit to Kent for a few years. Without Allison up front, we struggled to make an impact on a Gills team lacking confidence, being without a win in 5 games. A determined second half rearguard action looked like giving us a share of the spoils, especially with Barry Roche's heroics, but the Gills netted 4 minutes from time to see us lose again at night for the third time (of three) this season. As well as this, we just can't seem to get a draw, no matter how we try.
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Mark Allott, Johns Man of the Month |
So, to continue the August analogy, we had a month where 3 excellent wins were sandwiched between 2 frustrating defeats. We are showing increasing signs of confidence, but understandable inconsistency. Oddly enough, we've relied little on Sammy Clingan, who's slowly getting to match fitness after his injury with Wolves. The competition in midfield has seen Derek Niven and Mark Allott perform splendidly, ably supported by Hall, who is now exerting more influence and looking increasingly at ease. In goal, Roche has settled in well, has made some marvellous saves and looks good with his huge punts downfield. His hesitancy with crosses appears to be getting less and less as his confidence grows. The more peripheral players such as Gareth Davies and Alan O'Hare have also contributed well. The forward combination of Larkin and Allison looks sound, but the other forwards are struggling, so our options look limited, particularly given the Chief's need for a rest when we get 2 games in a week.
Man of the month for September? This is not easy given some good displays, but I'm plumping for Mark Allott with consistently influential displays and 2 good goals at Walsall. I know he's not the most popular player at the club, but he certainly did the business in the month.
