Away The Gas – Chesterfield
By Darren Stobbs
We made an even earlier start to our journey to Chesterfield than we had to Fleetwood the previous week for our fourth visit to the ‘new’ home of the Spireites and almost nine years since we were last there.
Having attended my sister’s wedding in Hereford the previous afternoon and night, it was almost worth not bothering to go to bed, for the three hours sleep I managed; some did say that I was mad to travel!
It’s a shame we weren’t playing Shrewsbury or Cheltenham, as they are much closer to Hereford! A couple of people did ask if my sister arranged her wedding for a Friday, so that I could watch Rovers on Saturday.
Martin, my fellow away travel organiser, picked me up at 5.00am to head for the coach and arrange everything for the pick-ups at Kingswood and The Mem.
Just as we set off at 6:30am, a first for the Supporters Club was a live broadcast from Talk Sport Radio, to which Martin was on hand to answer all questions about Rovers.
We stopped at Donnington Park Services on the way for 45 mins and then arrived at Chesterfield, home of the wonky spired church, at 10:15am for the 12:30pm lunchtime kick off. On arrival the stewards were very friendly and directed fans to the different eateries or pubs for away fans.
One of my tasks this season, for a friend, is to purchase a pennant at all the away grounds. Some of our younger fans probably wouldn’t remember when pennants were traditionally swapped by clubs in the centre circle before a match.
I find it intriguing as to what people collect; I have always purchased a club badge at any new ground, but I have also heard of keyrings, mugs and small teddy bears to name but a few examples. I was unsuccessful on this occasion, but the club shop staff were intrigued to know why we needed to buy nine programmes. If you don’t already know, we collect programmes for people who subscribe to a list which Jamie Howarth organises in our matchday shop.
Walking around the ground, a local fan stopped to shake my friend’s hand, to say ‘Fair play to you guys, leaving really early, with it on TV, all because of this’ – as he rubbed his fingers to suggest money (with it being on SKY Sports).
I already knew of ‘The Derby Tup’ pub, just over five minutes from the ground. We passed an old fashioned butcher’s shop on the way there and a local guy wondered if we wanted food, as he proudly walked out with his weekend meat purchase.
‘No thanks, drink first, food after’, Martin replied!
The pub was already busy with Rovers fans on our arrival. It is one of those proper old traditional working class pubs, which you could imagine the old mine workers cramming into at the end of a working day. The bar staff were very friendly and even helped us with take our drinks to where we were situated. I like to try a local real ale if I can, and this place didn’t disappoint with a number of them available at £3.20p. This was more like it, not this £6 – £7 nonsense!
Another Rovers fan even said there was one for £2.50p! He was also after anyone who travelled up who had a spare ticket. This was all like stepping back in time 30 years ago – 90’s drink prices, a friendly service and friendly locals, and with people asking for a spare ticket!
Everything was going great, what could go wrong? Well, I’ll come to that in a moment!
We purchased a pie in the ground, which was fantastic, at £5 it was about what you pay now, but it was a proper steak pie, which you could tell was quality and piping hot as well.
On to the match and the away end was well populated, all desperate to get our season kicking off in the right direction. It was a frustrating first half with still lots of errors to our game. To make it worse the officials were awful with one of the worse assistant referees I have seen for a long time. No wonder everything looked onside to him, when he was behind play and looking on an angle, missing numerous clear offsides to Chesterfield’s advantage.
We were down to 10 men when one of their wide players ran through and seemed to stumble to ground, but Joel Senior was judged to have pulled him down (having seen it again, it was what I thought, with the Chesterfield attacker already falling).
Chesterfield then took the lead with a looping header on the angle, after a deep cross on the left.
We equalised in the second half when the ball fell to Hutchinson, after their keeper pushed away an Alfie Kilgour shot, and the Rovers midfielder finished from close range.
Although there was a good bit of banter from the Gasheads towards the home end, I turned to say it was too early for all that stuff with over 20 minutes remaining and with 10 men.
We could not hang on and a corner was met with a good header from Chesterfield’s central defender, who had his back to goal and managed to find the top corner of the net. From a Rovers perspective, 10 men or not, we should be defending set pieces a lot better than that.
The win was then secured with a low cross and an easy finish inside the six yard box.
My Man of the Match, and also the vote of those on the coach was goalkeeper Luke Southwood; he made five or six decent saves to keep us in the match and to keep the scoreline down.
ATT: 8,013 with 750 Rovers fans – a really decent turnout, with an early start and on TV. Although, I expect it was a ground to tick off for many, especially a lot of our younger supporters.
I think, without the sending off, there would probably have been more boos and angry fans at the end. For me it was still papering over the cracks a little. We should have been strong enough to grind out a draw, as the goals we conceded were disappointing, regardless of having 10 men.
I have been watching Rovers long enough, along with many other Gasheads, to know that traditionally we don’t play well when down to 10 men and we also don’t play well once an opposition has 10 men left on the field.
We left Chesterfield at just gone 2:30pm and went straight back to Bristol, arriving back at The Mem at 5:45pm.
We now two massive home games coming up, even at this stage of the season.
I am, like many others confident that Darrell can steady the ship. He had a hard start to life at Rovers before and I agree with his comments of the same, last week.
I also noted Darrell saying about the connection with the fans and players is not there yet. Gasheads will always get behind the players wearing the blue and white quarters, especially when new players arrive here, as they all have to be given a chance.
However, my own take on it is there are a number of players who have had their chance the past 18 months or so and people’s patience are wearing thin.
Apparently, one player has said it’s out of order to question the efforts of the players, but for me, considering with what we put up with for the majority of last season and again with some players (not all) in the opening four games of this season, fans have every right to question what is going on with some horrendous statistics being made.
Keep the faith.
Up The Gas
