It is the same old failings, says our Chesterfield FC fan writer

I know that the manager is in charge but when you have everyone in the ground questioning his tactics then you have to lay the blame at his door.

Torquay away, a 3-0 win, even the home side’s pundits were praising Chesterfield.

But that was followed by the agony of chucking away a two-goal lead against Solihull.

In that game, everyone could clearly see that Mike Fondop was flagging, and our midfield five were being pushed further and further back.

We had the whole ground begging for a change of formation or a sub up front so at least Chesterfield could play a ball up the pitch to relieve some pressure; but the manager refused to do so and we conceded to a simple header.

Halifax away was a case of us being well beaten, it’s just that the score was only 1-0 to the home side.

Without four or five good saves by Shwan Jalal it could have been much worse.

Jack Redshaw, who scored and made the penalty for Halifax, was easily the best player on the pitch and we couldn’t cope with him.

Halifax went to a 5-3-2 formation and outnumbered Chesterfield in the midfield, Weston and Buchanan battled away all afternoon but getting balls out wide to McKay and Gevaro proved difficult and Chesterfield only put in a few decent crosses all afternoon.

Fondop missed with a header first-half, Boden miscued in the second-half and Denton headed one that the Halifax keeper accidentally sat on in order to keep it out.

Apart from that we didn’t create enough as Halifax were quick in the tackle and had Redshaw to run at our defence.

It was the same old story of Chesterfield competing for 45 minutes and then falling away when the opposition altered tactically and upped the tempo.

You know you are in trouble when the opposition manager, in this case Halifax’s Peter Wild, starts praising you.

His comments that when John Sheridan gets some players in, and given time, he’ll sort it out are the ultimate insult to fans.

Time is almost up and as there is no transfer window in non-league, we could potentially sign anybody, if the money hadn’t been squandered on high wages for non-performing players.

Also the January transfer window is almost open for us to sign dead wood from Football League teams, as we did for the last three seasons we were actually in the league.

So will Chesterfield stick with what we’ve got or get in some loanees who lose heart when we go behind?

I’m still hearing rumours that the latest takeover bid isn’t dead yet, but even if that were to happen next month I’d be doubtful if that proved to be enough to turn round things on the pitch.

By Roland Gent