November-A Month of Mixed Fortunes and Considerable Nonsense

A Review By John Taylor

Strangely, the month of November turned up 7 games, but only 3 of them were in the league, so it was an odd mix. We began with the Johnstone's Paints Trophy second round at Boundary Park and came away with a creditable, if rare, win at that venue, courtesy of an excellent first half strike by Adam Smith. The side, weakened by injury and experimentation, included debuts for Rueben Wiggins-Thomas and Michael Standing whilst Gareth Davies and Janos Kovacs made a return to the side.

Adam Smith's thunderbolt at
Boundary Park

It was an odd game in a ground with only 2 stands in use with Town dominating the first half and deservedly taking the lead, whilst after the break, we hardly had a kick and defended doggedly to progress to round 3. One piece of defending deserves particular note when with around 10 minutes left, Alan O'Hare risked life and limb by flinging himself at Liddell's boot to block his volley and concede a corner. The Town fans on the end gave the Irishman rapturous applause for his brave block.

Next up was the away trip to Gillingham which saw the debut of Mark Hughes in midfield. He joined us on loan from Thurrock after being at Oldham until his contract was cancelled earlier in the season. He had a fine debut and even capped it with a well-taken first half goal which should have been added to on the stroke of half-time by Colin Larkin. The Irishman was through with only the keeper to beat, but inexplicably shot early to give the home keeper an easy save. How we were to rue that miss! With 20 minutes left we looked very comfortable and should have extended the lead when Paul Hall missed a gilt-edged opportunity when set up by O'Hare from a corner. Hall scuffed his shot wide, but Folan, in an offside position, stabbed it in at the back post and the effort was disallowed.

New boy Mark Hughes had a great first 45 minutes at the Priestfield

The Gills looked more threatening as the game wore on and Roche pulled off a fine save with a few minutes left and the danger appeared to be averted. Not so though as the Kent side struck twice in injury time to leave us very frustrated at a long trip home with no points when we should have had all three. Not a pleasant experience.

The eagerly-awaited Charlton game was next, with Iain Dowie's charges bottom of the Premiership and looking potential victims. Unlike City and West Ham, however, the Addicks kept the ball well and made us chase them and despite taking a second-half lead, we were pegged back and were forced into extra-time. The difference in the leagues really told in the extra period when we were unable to get hold of the ball for very long. The Londoners scored just once more, however and looked to have won the tie until injury time when the Chief popped up to nut an equaliser to send the thing to penalties. Our fightback was to be admired, but somehow it seemed that we would fail in the shootout and so it turned out. The run was splendid, however, with the players deserving the applause at the end. Charlton had been very professional and needed to be and Dowie's post match comments were very balanced. He didn't get much further though, as the club dispensed with his services not 2 weeks later.

Great start Larks made 1-0

Caleb made it 2-1

Chief gave hope 3-3 but penalties were not to be

Our next venture into cup football was, very predictably, far short of glorious. Even in a high wind, we had the seemingly easy task of Basingstoke Town at home: a team bottom of the table and 3 leagues below us. Having done the giant-killing bit twice, we should have known what to expect, but we were edgy, hesitant and wary of the Hampshire side. They took the lead from a left wing cross that both Downes and O'Hare failed to deal with and the pair almost came to blows as the non-league boys celebrated. The half-time discussions centred on whether we could pull it back and most of us thought not and were, miserably, proved right. What is it about the FA Cup and Town teams? Why do we always underperform so significantly? One third round appearance since 1981 and only 2 second round appearances in 10 years is absolutely atrocious for a club of our standing. I cannot believe that successive bunches of players enjoy a Saturday Christmas shopping in early December, but it's the only explanation that seems to stack up.

Oops egg on face time out the FA Cup again !

Given our league plummet, the next encounter with Cheltenham, again at home was a must win game, especially given their position as strugglers. The wind was in evidence again, but the team saw 6 changes from the Basingstoke fiasco. Jamie Lowry was rested, despite being about the only decent performer the week before, whilst Kovacs, Hughes, Smith, Allison and Larkin made way for Hazell, Allott, Hurst, Shaw and Folan. Bailey replaced Lowry.

Big Alan O'Hare found his scoring boots again against Cheltenham

The game started well with Town being patient and playing decent football. The reward wouldn't come, though and we started making mistakes in trying to force the issue. The Robins started pushing us back in the last 10 minutes before the break and half time came at the right time for us. Mr Mac's team-talk must have worked wonders as we went ahead within 2 minutes of the resumption. Hurst won a corner on the left and delivered well to the edge of the 6-yard box. O'Hare won the header which the keeper parried, but the number 3 followed it in and stabled the ball home at the third attempt for his second goal in successive Saturday home league games. Like his other 2 goals, it was again against a team from down the M5-very strange.

After this we created little, defended in numbers and got overrun. Roche made a brilliant stop from substitute Guinan and we replaced the tiring Shaw with Picken to bolster the struggling midfield for the last 15 minutes. We held out for a deserved, but scrappy win with an appropriately scrambled goal. This could just be the result that turns the season back the right way.

Hursty rounded off a hectic last five minutes at Gresty Road with his equaliser 2-2

Our final league game of the month was at Crewe where last time we earned a point with heroic defending from Steve Payne and Kevin Dawson in a 0-0 draw where we could easily have lost 5-0. This time it was a little more even, but we were closed to blowing it. After an even first half, we looked slightly the more comfortable side after the break, but as is our wont, we gave the Alex a goal with a daft mistake on 65 minutes. Hazell tried to chest down a long ball instead of heading it back into the home half and he lost possession to Lowe who fed Varney for an accomplished finish. Alexandra then had a goal disallowed and Town saw a lot of the ball but didn't really threaten Tomlinson's goal. All looked fine, however, with 5 minutes left when Niven equalised with a splendid finish from Hall's set-up. Three minutes later we appeared to have blown it again as more sloppy defending allowed Rogers in to put the home side back in front. We weren't finished though and Hall set up another equaliser as he crossed for Allison to knock down for Hurst's deserved injury time leveller.

All that was left then was the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Northern Quarter Final against Chester at Saltergate. After being fined for fielding a weakened side against Oldham in the previous round, the management took no chances and fielded our strongest 11. After just a few seconds we were ahead with a goal from Shaw and after 15 minutes, Folan made it 2 against a side who were looking embarrassingly bad. By the end of the game, both sides had well earned that description as the most unprofessional defending saw City go 3-2 up just after the break, only for Town to wake up again to take a 4-3 lead with a brace from Aaron Downes. Just when it seemed we would progress, Chester equaliser with another shambolic effort with 90 seconds left. So, we got another penalty shootout and this time we did it with Barry Roche redeeming himself somewhat after a dismal display. The big Dubliner saved 2 Chester penalties and scored one himself as we triumphed in the shootout by 3-1. Those not at the game thought it must have been exciting, but the overriding emotion was frustration at the repeated defensive errors. Relief at actually progressing came well up in the list of feelings on the game though. Alan O'Hare's last minute injury turned out to be worse than it looked with his being sidelined for 3 months. Fortunately, Phil Picken is almost match fit to return to the side.

Spireites went through on spot kicks

Off the pitch, Shane Nicholson went out to Lincoln on loan and Aaron Downes was called up to train with the Aussie squad for their game in London. Little else of note seemed to take place, but the month was hectic enough on the pitch to counter that. It was the sort of month where you feel like tearing your hair out. You know the players can do much better but they continued to perform like clowns at the back-we conceded 12 goals in the month, yet kept 2 clean sheets. The management have been publicly critical of the defence, so must be attempting to sort it out. One wonders if Barry Roche's reluctance to come for crosses consistently is a factor in breeding uncertainty. We quickly need the back-line to perform as a unit, not a collection of individuals and we certainly need the forwards to score more regularly, Folan excepted-he's done well so far this campaign.

Kevan Hurst John's man of the month

Given the weird pattern of results and performances in November, the man of the month is very difficult this time, especially with few players being consistently in the team. We've had a strong case from Paul Shaw, who's come back from injury and looked good in the last 3 games, we've had the vital winner from Alan O'Hare against Cheltenham and his heroic defending at Oldham, but he's also made defensive errors at times. My vote this time, however, goes to Kevan Hurst, who's started to produce more telling crosses and worked hard, especially in tracking back to assist the struggling defence. To cap it all, he scored the injury-time equaliser at Crewe, which was very satisfying.