Tooley’s Take

Phil Tooley takes a look at the game and its context

Chesterfield 5 Gateshead 0 National League Game #26

Ruthless. Brutal. Cold Blooded. Merciless. Unrelenting. You could look at a thesaurus and come up with many synonyms to cover Chesterfield’s first-half performance in front of goal. Not so much the second half though. Professional. Efficient. Competent. Decisive. Powerful. They are more fitting words for minutes 45 – 90 plus. All good words covering a wholly confident performance, from both individuals and the team as a whole. Just what you want from a game in hand.

Were the Spireites at their pulsating best? Despite the biggest NL win of a phenomenal season to date, Paul Cook’s charges were not at the very top of their game. They were close at times, but they didn’t need to be at the absolute top of the tree because Gateshead, who’d lost some of their best players to injury, transfer and loan recalls, got lots of aspects of their possession-based game wrong. They persisted with playing out from the back despite having their pockets picked time and again, and it cost them dearly.

Back for the first time since limping off at Kidderminster Harriers at the end of October, a flawless Tyrone Williams attacked Liam Mandeville’s corner and Fire Man Grigg latched on to the knock down to open the scoring. Naylor’s acute angled shot went in off the post before a great move ended with Michael Jacobs teeing up Grigg on 45+3. A fantastic half-time score.

But wait a minute, as the queue for Bovril grew, ‘Crackers’ moved from being a provider to a scorer. Debut-making Heed keeper Ed Beach will not want to claim the assist for Jacobs! From Gateshead re-starting after Grigg’s second to Jacob’s goal, the ball was in play for less than ten seconds. What a magical spell.

A 4-0 lead at the break, the first such first-45 gap in just shy of ten years, when a Cook-inspired side scored an incredible four in six minutes at Cheltenham Town, to lead 4-0, in what was a championship season. I remember the game well, despite not being there. Sylvia was in hospital and I was being a good hubby and visited, along with our daughter Emma. When we were booted out because visiting hours had ended, it was 0-0, but when we got back to Emma’s car and cranked the ignition up, it was 4-0 to the Spireites.

That burst of brilliance in Gloucestershire was incredible and determined where the points would go, 4-1 the final score, and it wasn’t a million miles different from the rest of the Gateshead game. When Will converted the penalty to make it 5-0, having seen his great pal Jacobs strike the ball onto the angle of the wood a few moments earlier, Heed were at sixes and sevens, and every Spireite there assumed it would be sixes or sevens that would be appearing in the final scoreline.

But alas, that superbly hit 12-yarder was the final click of the scoreboard (clickety-click, goal 66), and it marked Grigg’s first hat-trick since bagging four in a 5-0 win for MK Dons against Swindon Town in April 2021.

The clinical in front of goal first half was followed by a much more profligate time after the penalty. There were loads of chances, but I’d suggest that the fact that the points were safe meant that there was a small drop in performance, not substantial, but enough to make the leaders look good as opposed to great. And Gateshead stepped up to have a fair but of possession, but create very little danger.

Ex-Spireite Dinanga should have done better than heading wide from close in and son of ex-Spireite Martyn Booty, Regan, miscued a cross which ended up going straight to Harry Tyrer and represent the visitors’ only ‘shot’ on target of the contest. They are the division’s third highest scorers and, player loss or not, restricting them to nowt of note was a testament to the performance of the returning Williams and the shunted to the left Ash Palmer. Had there not been a hat-trick grabber in the pack, Tyrone would have been my star man. Had that miscued shot not ended up in Tyrer’s grasp, as my co-commentator Jamie Hewitt said, a bit of Lynx Africa rather than a shower would have been perfectly acceptable for the keeper and there would have been no need for kitman Jason to get out the Vanish.

However, the shine was dulled somewhat when Ryan Colclough, who’d been immense for the opening third of the game, was hit hard by a foul tackle from Kenton Richardson and he limped off the park and was ferried straight to the Royal for an X-ray. No break but his ankle, according to Danny Webb, resembled a balloon. We await further news. The heebie-jeebies he’d put into the Heed right side, rather than disappear, were added too by a mature show from sub ‘Bez’ Berry, who won the pen and generally terrorised the visitors, whose decision to switch to a back four from a three was probably the main reason five didn’t become more.

A fine way to celebrate Paul Cook’s two-spell 250th game in charge of the team in all competitions and a fine way to use up game in hand #1. Next Tuesday, game in hand #2 is programmed in, at the SMH against Altrincham, victors last time we faced them, and scheduled four days ahead of our televised trip to third-placed Barnet. Whilst not getting ahead of ourselves, avenge the defeat against Alty, and we’d all take a draw at The Hive in the last kick-off for a sequence of WD for tea, that would substantially loosen our nerves.

Talking of nerves, they were wholly absent against Gateshead. No nail nibbling, no palpitations, no worries. A stress-free stadium and a strangely subdued atmosphere with no need for a heroic comeback, or a stack of second half scores, pretty unusual for this season and something I hope we repeat a number of times as we’re in the countdown from 20 with a very welcome nine-point gap.

FA Trophy action on Saturday as the team travels to Welling United. Expect plenty of team rotation and expect to see plenty of names you don’t know on the team–sheet. A chance for youth to shine, a chance to rest our key assets ahead of four NL games in 12 days in the second half of this month.

Another home win (12 in 13 NL games), the Spireites have scored 12 more home goals than any other rival (42 compared to Bromley and Altrincham’s next best of 30), another fine crowd for a midweek game, the highest home night game crowd since Wrexham packed the Auto Windscreens (North) Stand at the start of last season, but most importantly, another building block in place in what we all hope will be a season to treasure.

Phil’s Positive: Whilst we know Gateshead had the heart ripped from their team in the week leading up to this match, they remain the third highest scorers in the NL, and they had one shot on target, which was probably a cross, in the entire 90 minutes, and that was at 5-0. The defence was terrific even though the other end will get the plaudits.

Next Match: The team is in FA Trophy action on Saturday, January 13, playing at NLS side Welling United. Expect a side dominated by academy players. Kick-off is at 3pm with 1866 Sport on air from 2.30pm.

Chesterfield (4-2-3-1 to start): Tyrer; King, Williams, Palmer, Horton; Naylor, Oldaker; Mandeville (Banks 76), Jacobs, Colclough (Berry 31);Grigg (Quigley 76). Subs (not used): Sheckleford, Dobra.