Spireites blog: Walsall draw was perfect response from Chesterfield’s players to Dean Saunders’ sacking

Last Saturday was perhaps one of the worst home performances since moving to the Proact Stadium.

We lacked passion, energy and it looked as though Dean Saunders had lost the squad, therefore it was no surprise to learn that he had been sacked just hours later.

Overall this was probably the correct decision as to only have won two home games all season was unacceptable.

It was thus pivotal that we showed some signs of potential for any managers looking to takeover at the club and the players did not disappoint.

It was quite a slow start against Walsall admittedly, who were proving that they could manage without Dean Smith and started brightly.

It was evident that we were trying to adapt to this new formation of 3-5-2 and there was definitely some teething problems.

However we did not deserve to go in 1-0 down at the break as we had held our own reasonably well in the first half even if we hadn’t tested the goalkeeper too much.

The second half on the other hand was a vast improvement, we pressed them well, and we strung passes together whilst also testing their goalkeeper on several occasions.

Ebanks-Blake could have had a hat-trick and it was only through keeping brilliance and misfortune that he did not.

Despite all this it did seem like we were going to pull up short until right at the death when Lee Novak bundled the ball home and that was nothing less than we deserved.

The stand out player without a shadow of a doubt would have to be Drew Talbot who did not seem to put a foot wrong during the game even though he was playing in a position unfamiliar to him.

Right wing -back did suit Drew as he was able to venture forward more often and not appear as exposed as he has done in recent weeks when defending.

It didn’t really click for him under Saunders and maybe the inevitable change in manager will do him good.

As for the decision to which manager should be next, I would not be disappointed if the Bookies were correct and Mark Cooper became our next managerial appointment.

He has had a couple of failures in his career but he worked wonders at Swindon last season, a side who managed to play us off of the park twice when we were playing our best football for years.

Furthermore he favours the formation 3-5-2 which we excelled with against the Saddlers at the weekend.

If we were not to appoint him I would look towards Billy Davies if we could afford him, Dave Allen has said in the past that he is friends with him plus he managed to do a reasonable job at Nottingham Forest but even so my first choice would still be Cooper.