Tooley’s Take

Phil Tooley takes a look at the game and its context

Chesterfield 2 Crawley Town 2

League Two Game #6

Emotional week, emotional day. Result disappointing but any point after being two down should be seen as a good one.

A run of emotions that started off with the joy of a first ever win against Harrogate Town was soon brought down to earth with the news of Phil Kirk’s death. There was a collective outpouring of heartache from the Spireites (and wider football) family for a man who epitomised what being a supporter and being from Chesterfield meant.

That mutual sadness came together in the minutes before kick-off with the wreath laying by the two captains and the minute of applause ahead of the game, reinforced by the in-match togetherness on 59, a feeling heightened by the two goals in three minutes immediately before. Perfect script.

Standard matchday emotions were pushed to the limit again when Chesterfield conceded another ‘was it, wasn’t it’ penalty which, when converted, was followed by a wholly inappropriate few seconds of behaviour, all elements of which were disgraceful, whether on a highly charged day or not. Both players and supporters (catalyst or not) need to take responsibility for their own actions.

The gaffer’s emotions were clear too when a combination of goalkeeper and left back denied Crawley a late winner following what looked to all as a nailed on well offside, one on one break. Great work by Zach Hemming and Lewis Gordon to prevent what looked a certain concession. More emotion when the denied Crawley man appeared to exit the park on full time in tears as a result. He clearly cared, and hats off to him for that.

The Spireites fell behind as a result of what seemed to be a communication error, with Harry McKirdy, who allegedly holds the World Record for minimum time between injury hobble and sprint, took advantage to finish, it has to be said, very well. The same player fired home the penalty and rightly earned a yellow for his ill advised celebrations.

A 45 to forget. A mention about Crawley, whilst Chesterfield were off it, they could clearly play. Not sure what PC said at the break, but all cylinders seemed fired up as the second half started, passes were better, movement on and off the ball was quicker and two back to back bits of quality changed the whole outlook of the match.

Dylan Duffy receives VDCs throw, susses out the situation, left footed box-edge shot, more curl than a Kevin Keegan perm, one pulled back. With the celebrations in full swing and all eyes on the big screen as minute 59 approached, a sweet move ended with Dobra hitting home Vontae’s ball in that was deftly flicked on by Ronan Darcy to level. Cheer, breath in, 59 is here, raucous applause even more raucous than it would have been thanks to the double Ds goals.

Surely the home side will win it now? Sadly not, despite a few corners and balls into the box, coupled with Crawley continuing to want to try and win it too, the perfect script was not delivered, a real shame, but a bit like in the aftermath of Harrogate, there were plenty of ‘last season we’d have lost that game’ type comments. Despite some disappointing concessions, there does seem more steel in this season’s squad.

W4 D1 L1 is no bad start, but we all know there’s more to come, much more, and under the guidance of Paul Cook, with Ashley Kirk and Sharon Kirk in the Boardroom, we all feel that this season is going to be special.

A brief break from EFL2 action, with Crewe Alexandra (morning leaders, beaten 3-0 at home) hosting a Vertu Trophy group game on Tuesday. For just about every club, this competition is a bit further down the priority list than others, so we’ll certainly see plenty of personnel changes, but Chesterfield’s second XI is still pretty strong.

Crewe, of course, could put in their first team to seek some bounce back from the Swindon loss at the weekend, who knows? But we all know how good it is to win the competition, that 2012 Wembley victory against Paolo Di Canio’s Swindon on a red hot day in which the Italian wore a winter coat and woolly scarf, was a great day and really helped heal the wounds of a relegation season. It would be nice to book-end that with a move out of the division in a different direction plus a Wembley win! Phil would like that.

Phil’s Positive: The tribute to Phil Kirk overshadowed everything else on the day, and the minutes leading up to the in-match applause on 59, when the Spireites scored their two comeback goals, showed what both the boys in blue and our lost leader mean to the supporters and the town.

Next Match: Vertu Trophy action on Tuesday, September 2 at Crewe Alexandra, it’s a 7 o’clock kick-off. Build-up on 1866 Sport from 6.30pm then onto the commentary platform just before the game starts(find details on Chesterfield FC website), with half-time and After the Whistle remaining on the 1866 Sport App, online and on smart speaker. There’s a somewhat different style of After the Whistle available covering the Crawley game, it includes tributes to Phil Kirk; it’s available now via your usual podcast source.

Chesterfield (4-2-3-1 to start): Hemming; Daley-Campbell (Mandeville 78), Dunkley, McFadzean, Gordon; Dibley-Dias (Naylor 68), Stirk; Duffy (Markanday 68), Darcy (Grigg 68), Dobra (Lewis 84); Bonis.Unused Subs: Boot, Fleck.