Phil Tooley takes a look at the game and its context
Chesterfield 1 Manchester City 1
(Chesterfield won 4-2 on penalties)
Bristol Street Motors Trophy, Northern Group G
How many teams can boast they are unbeaten against Manchester City in their last five games? Not Manchester United, not Liverpool, not Arsenal, not Chelsea, not Spurs. But Chesterfield can!
Albeit the last two have been against City U21 sides in the Football League Trophy (both drawn, then both won on pens by the Spireites, both after City appeared in the previous season’s FA Youth Cup Finals), before that, there was the great 2006 League Cup win, and prior to that, in 1998/99, two 1-1 draws in the equivalent of League One. Not bad.
How much have things moved on since that last meeting in 2017? A total of 1,266 at the ground last time, almost double that this season, and the crowd was higher than Rotherham v Mansfield, just saying!
The gaffer, as expected, made plenty of changes. Not sure we all expected 11 changes, but that’s what we got, with valuable 90s for Grimes, Williams, Horton and Drummond whilst others, most notably Mike Jones and Tim Akinola, got useful run-outs to keep them in good working order. And no injuries reported.
City played a variance on the Waltz. Slow, slow, slow, really quick, but their myriad of first-half passing produced little in attack, they hit the bar, but despite witnessing oodles of technical wizardry, it was mainly near the half-way line. Pretty but unsuccessful, rapid but ineffective.
In Chesterfield’s first-half pockets of possession, at least they created some chances, not squillions, but there were blocks and tackles as City’s young defenders had to show they could do some heavy lifting as well as demonstrating some extremely enjoyable skills. Goalless at the break. About right.
All round, things opened up after the break, with Town enjoying a lot more of the ball, but the visitors took the lead when Jamie Grimes produced an agricultural challenge just outside the ‘D’ and Jacob Wright, a City player since the age of eight, hit an unstoppable free-kick beyond the dive of debutant keeper Ashton Rinaldo, an 18-year-old from Adelaide in Australia.
A few changes by PC and then DJ matched the City man after a foul on Kane Drummond, another splendid free-kick goal. Chesterfield could have nicked it, but 1-1 was fair, so as is the thing in this competition, one point each for the mini-league and a shoot-out for a bonus point.
The two scorers unsurprisingly opened the proceedings, Town goal, Town save, Wizard of Aus. Next five pens all scored, then Will Dickson stepped up, keeper dives one way, shot goes the other, but onto the post, Chesterfield get the bonus point.
Connor Cook scored one of the pens, hit hard and high, and it’s worthy of note that his opening three Chesterfield appearances have been in three different competitions, the FA Trophy against Coalville, National League at York City and now the Football League Trophy. That has been matched, with a different combo, by Vontae Daley-Campbell, whose opening three appearances were in the League Cup, League Two and League Trophy as well as Drummond, done in a slightly different order. Suspect that’s never happened before for three players in the same match! (Calling Stuart Basson…..)
A good watch, little pressure on anyone, a view of some future footballing heroes whether for City, Chesterfield or some other clubs, and home relatively early thanks to the 7pm start. Lincoln City and Grimsby Town to come.
Back to the more important stuff on Saturday when another team from City’s neck of the woods, Salford City, visit the SMH. Four games, no goals scored, three 2-0 home defeats plus a goalless draw at Bradford City in L2. Strikers Cole Stockton and Marcus Dackers, who scored against Town for Southend United a couple of years ago, know their way to goal.
Ammies boss Karl Robinson always seeks to play out from the back, an ideal scenario for Chesterfield. Cookie knows how he plays and knows how to exploit it. PC’s head to head record against ‘Robbo’ shows no defeats in the last seven manager meetings, whilst Karl’s sides have failed to score in six of those encounters, five of which Mr Cook’s clubs won.
The three teams above Chesterfield in the fledgling table are all away on Saturday, a good home show could therefore put the National League champions above the League Two dotted line!
Phil’s Positive: Played very well out of possession, the majority of which young City had, but the Spireites had more chances and more corners and – goal apart – young keeper Rinaldo had no 90-minute shots to save.
Next Match: Salford City (H), Saturday 24 August 24, League Two, KO 3pm. Full commentary for subscribers on the new commentary platform (find details on Chesterfield FC website). Build-up from 2pm, half-time and post-match remains on the 1866 Sport App.
Chesterfield (4-2-3-1 to start): Rinaldo; Williams, Grimes, Araujo, Horton; Jones (Oldaker 74), Akinola (Mohiuddin 83); Jacobs (Berry 83), Hobson (Daley-Campbell 74), Drummond; Quigley (Cook 74). Subs (not used): Boot, Jessop.
Goals: Oldaker 79 (Chesterfield), Wright 52 (Manchester City)
Penalties: (Chesterfield) Oldaker (scored), Drummond (scored), Cook(scored), Berry (scored), (Manchester City) Wright (saved), Mukasa (scored), O’Reilly (scored), Dickson (hit post).
Referee: Elliott Bell
Bookings: Grimes (Chesterfield), O’Reilly (Manchester City)
Attendance: 2,446
Banner Jones 1866 Sport Man of the Match: Kane Drummond (chosen by Josh Marsh)
