Tooley’s Take

Phil Tooley takes a look at the game and its context

Walsall 1 Chesterfield 0

League Two Game #7

Regular readers will know I’m a natural optimist. Those who know me well know I’ve been around a while and have seen just about everything you can see, good and bad, associated with Chesterfield FC. What I can see at the moment is the Spireites in seventh spot at level four, a position the team hasn’t bettered at the end of a season since being relegated from level three in 2017. Good, but we expect better.

What I saw at Walsall was very disappointing, very disappointing indeed. But it was far from the ‘worst ever’ or far from a ‘disgrace,’ comments the like of which seem to have flooded social media in the aftermath of the contest. It was far from Spireites worst performance at The Bescot Stadium in 2025! But we expect better.

Chesterfield had enough of the ball and enough of the territory to have won the game, but they just lacked quality on the day at the vital times. Ten teams in EFL2 won on Saturday. Average touches in the box of the ten winners? To the nearest whole number, 23; the Spireites had 28. Enough to have won if the quality had been there on the day. Average number of crosses of the ten winners? To the nearest whole number, 17; the Spireites delivered 21. Enough to have won if the quality had been there on the day. But we expect better.

Not enough of the box touches or crosses were converted into shots, though Town had more shots than three of the ten winners on the day, Swindon Town, Oldham Athletic and, of course, Walsall, but with zero on target, that also meant we bemoaned the quality of the team’sfinishing in the West Midlands. Two late headers could have easily earned a point, and in all fairness, 90% of all Spireites would have taken a point pre-kick-off given our recent record against the Saddlers. But we expect better.

Good old expectations. It’s brilliant that we expect better. Since the summer of 2020, we’ve seen five years of solid, upward trajectory movement, and that’s because we’ve a solid off-the-park base, a terrific manager, a well balanced squad and an increasingly (quite rightly) demanding public.

But every week, the team will come up against a team that will work their bits off to try and beat their opponents. Of course, every opposition manager knows what to expect from a Paul Cook side, just as we all do, and his ‘Plan A’ 4-2-3-1 style, since his return in 2022, has seen 84 wins from 163 league games, a 51.5% win rate.

PC’s fantastic first spell win rate? 45.2%. Just for good measure, the current 51.5% win rate in the highest ever by any Chesterfield manager in any single spell in charge. Clearly his style has been sussed out!

Was it a foul on Armando Dobra at the start of Walsall’s move they scored from? Looked it from my seat. Could Kyle McFadzean have done more in his tackle on Kanu? Possibly, but he got his foot on the ball, which then ricocheted onto the scorer’s shin and bounced perfectly for him. Another day, could have gone in any direction, no goal; another day ‘Fadz’ may have missed the tackle and fouled his opponent, card, no goal.

Miniscule margins versus massive mistakes. Successful style versussame-old same-old. We all think differently, we all see things differently, we all desperately want success for the Spireites and I for one still expect a season of success.

Pre-season favourites roll into town next weekend. Paul Warne’s MK Dons are unbeaten on the road (W2 D1) but they’ve lost their last two L2 games, both at home, against Walsall and, on Saturday, 3-2 to Grimsby Town. Their roster is impressive with the likes of Dan Crowley, Connor Lemonheigh-Evans, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Aaron Nemane and Aaron Collins in the squad, and they generally try to play good football, so it’s set to be a great contest at the weekend.

Finally, the gaffer told me afterwards about his new approach towards referees and officials (hear it in the After the Whistle podcast). At moments of, shall we say, frustration, he sat on his hands on the ice-boxas the likes of Kieron Dyer and Gary Roberts had their say with the fourth official. Cookie was laughing uncontrollably when Gary was yellow-carded as the manager showed a load of restraint.

There’s still a bucket full of passion with PC, and like with all of us, losses hurt and under-performing hurts, but having lost to Gillingham and Walsall this season, would we rather see ‘Plan A’ prevail or sit-back, sit-back hoofball?

We’re all different, but I know which style I’d prefer and I predict it won’t be long before A1 Plan A is back on the menu. The recipe is right, occasionally the ingredients are not of the best quality, but when all elements come together, the taste is sublime.

Phil’s Positive: PCs team have 13 points from seven games. Convert that average to a 46 game season and you get 85 points; Donny won the title last season with 84 points.

Next Match: The two pre-season favourites meet at the SMH Group Stadium on Saturday, September 13 at 3pm, Chesterfield v Milton Keynes Dons. Build-up on 1866 Sport starts at 2pm with the first and most comprehensive reaction coming in After the Whistle. Post Walsall, listen back to warts and all interviews from the manager and the skipper in this week’s podcast.

Chesterfield (4-2-3-1 to start): Hemming, Daley-Campbell (Tanton 73), Dunkley, McFadzean, Gordon (Lewis 73); Naylor, Stirk; Markanday(Mandeville 84), Darcy (Grigg 73), Dobra; Bonis (Dickson 84). Subs (not used); Boot, Fleck.