Phil Tooley takes a look at the game and its context
Crewe Alexandra 7 (seven) Chesterfield 1
Vertu Trophy Group H
Christians will know all about the Seven Virtues; faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. Spireites, after seeing their team being extremely charitable in the Vertu at Gresty Road, will need to see a tad more fortitude in the West Midlands on Saturday.
But we have faith and hope, and after last season’s unsuccessful battles with the Saddlers, justice could be on the cards. That leaves prudence and temperance. There was little caution, so dear prudence was absent, and as for temperance, we all needed some sort of unreasonable sustenance after that! It was more like the Seven Deadly Sins.
I’d got lots of words and phrases in my ‘Take Locker’. Magnificent, Blake’s, Up, Secret, Samurai, Brides for Brothers, Snow White, Year Itch, Nation Army, Wonders of the World, Of Nine, Sailing the Seas. I could go on, but they were saved up for that day we all see coming, when Town steamroller the other guys. This wasn’t meant to happen!
First seven concession since Paul Sturrock’s Plymouth Argyle scored five in the first 18 minutes before winning 7-0 at Home Park in 2004. First seven concession in a cup game since Ian Lawson scored four on his Burnley debut in a 7-0 win at Turf Moor in 1957.
The hat-trick scored by 19 year-old Stoke City loanee Emre Tezgel was only the second such goal-fest conceded in this competition by Chesterfield. The other? Luke Varney of Crewe Alexandra in their 4-2 win at Saltergate in 2007. Note for future: Avoid!
There were, for a while, parallels to the Chesterfield 5 Crewe Alexandra 5 classic played at the then B2Net Stadium in 2010. Crewe 3-0 up early on, Town pull one back only for it to be 4-1 at the break, (unreasonable hope), but Alex went off-script by scoring the next goal and, in truth, Spireites getting in amongst the goals never looked likely.
It was awful, embarrassing, seemingly shattering in one awful evening the ‘strength in depth’ claim we frequently make. All the game achieved for Paul Cook was to, after 11 changes, make his selection for Saturday easier, though as he told me after the game, Matt Dibley-Dias and Dylan Duffy are on the treatment table, so two changes seem inevitable.
Dilan Markanday showed some spirit and skill, with plenty of weaving runs and darts into the box, and he was probably the only starter who could walk out of the stadium with his head held reasonably upright. I felt for 17-year-old Alex Whitney, on at the break (the change was planned) for Devan Tanton. He’ll remember his first-team debut forever, but hopefully he’ll remember his next game with fondness.
Whilst Chesterfield’s performance was clearly unacceptable, Lee Bell’s young side did play well (they made nine changes), taking advantage of the visitors’ horror show (could be Se7en) in all areas of the park. They played through, round and over the top of Chesterfield time and again, with ease, had eight shots on target and had a pretty impressive conversion rate. Men v Boys and the Boys won.
Tuesday nights need to be banned after Gillingham, Mansfield Town and now the highly efficient Railwaymen have all darkened those days this season. Fortunately, the only two Tuesdays in the next three months are the next two games in this competition.
And what an awful game to try and bounce back. Four comings together last season, Walsall easily had the better of them, just one win for Chesterfield in the last nine encounters with Mat Sadler’s team the ultimate ‘let them have the ball and we’ll just counter-attack’ team.
On Tuesday night, the Saddlers won 3-1 at Shrewsbury Town in the Vertu with 41% possession, their two home wins this season (2-1 v Swindon Town and 1-0 v Salford City) featured the hosts having 27% and 30% possession respectively, so expect to be frustrated and prepare to be patient.
They’re much changed this season; last term, five players started 40 or more L2 games for them, Simkin, Gordon, Okagbue, Allen and our own Ryan Stirk, and none of that quintet are still with Walsall, but their DNA doesn’t appear to have been altered.
I mentioned the last seven concession, down in Devon. Next match back then? A win against a team beginning with ‘W’ (Wrexham). Believe!
Phil’s Positive: I loved the journey back; over the Staffs and Derbyshire Moors, no traffic, winding roads, music blaring out, blocked out any negative thoughts. And PC Collins, not once did I break the speed limit!
Next Match: Back to EFL2 action at Walsall on Saturday, September 6, 3pm kick-off. All the build-up on the 1866 Sport App, then onto the commentary platform for the game itself. But don’t forget, on Friday at 7.30pm, it’s England v Italy in an Under 20 International at the SMH Group Stadium.
Chesterfield (4-2-3-1 to start): Boot; Tanton (Whitney 46), Sheckleford, Grimes, Lewis (Gordon 70); Naylor (Stirk 70), Fleck; Markanday (Darcy 70), Mandeville, Cook; Grigg (Bonis 70). Subs (not used); Hemming, Dobra.
Goals: Lewis 21 (Chesterfield), Tezgel 4, 6, 51, Agius 16, Moult 30, Thibault (pen) 56, Armstrong 67 (Crewe)
Referee: Greg Rollason
Bookings: Grimes (Chesterfield)
Chesterfield manager Paul Cook was shown a yellow card.
Attendance: 961
1866 Sport Banner Jones Man of the Match: Dilan Markanday (chosen by Kurt Bigg)
