Tooley’s Take
Phil Tooley takes a look at the game and its context
Swindon Town 1 Chesterfield 2
League Two Game #46
Objective still not achieved, but this game and performance was an excellent peg in the ground to confirm that there’s much more right than wrong in Paul Cook’s side at this vital moment in the season. And there’s plenty of belief around the town.
Sixth place is an improvement on last season. A total of 79 points is a sizeable improvement on last season. Eight points off the automatic spots a year ago, three now (how frustrating is that? Tranmere and Crawley last gaspers, Accrington penalty miss, I could provide a long list). Just nine defeats, that normally gets you up. Ten away wins, great traveling. Promoted Cambridge managed seven.
I also reckon that the team has become the first ever, in the wholly National (as opposed to regional) pyramid that has achieved a play-off place, or better, in six consecutive seasons. Wrexham missed out on that opportunity earlier in the day to finish on five, something achieved by Lincoln City around 20 years ago. Incredible.
Last season in the play-offs, we went up against a team we just couldn’t suss out, Walsall, still can’t, but Spireites know how to beat Notts. And Grimsby. And Salford.
In game #46, we went up against another team we’ve struggled with since our return to the EFL, a team that, had they won, would have registered Chesterfield’s only double defeat this season on a ground where the previous 13 visits had spawned just one win, and that was in a relegation season. (NOTE – wins there spawn divisional changes).
But, with the past and the future irrelevant when Mr Oldham blew the first whistle, it was soon clear that Spireites were up for the fight on the finely manicured grass of an opponent that had been in the top three for much of the season and the top seven for virtually all of it. Just what the almost 2,000 travelling fans including stars from The Wizard of Oz, Only Fools And Horses, Super Mario Cart plus an odd Zebra, initially bathed in sunshine, ultimately extremely soggy, wanted to witness.
Early control and an early-ish goal. Armando Dobra got into a shooting position on the box-edge, slipped on delivery,but the ball fortuitously rolled to the gambling Lee Bonis, who slipped his marker, got a left peg on it to direct the ball beyond keeper Ripley. What a shift the Ulsterman put in. Again.
That boosted the confidence of everyone in blue, whether on or off the pitch, and the team maintained control of the game, should have scored two more through Markanday and Stirk, and as the fourth official held up the ‘3’ board on 45, we’d witnessed as good a half in an away match for some time.
Then we were all reminded our team is Chesterfield. Attacking, loose pass and control, wham bam, Middlemas converts, first ever start, first ever goal, 45+3. Big change in circumstances for the home side.
Spireites record of coming out, all guns blazing, eschewing control at the start of the second half is, shall we say, reasonably rare. Ian Holloway, absent from the touchline, present in the changing room, made a couple of personnel changes as well as a switching formation as The Robins spotted the opportunity to rescue their own season. I’ve not managed to find a comparable game in the EFL where it’s one or the other of the combatants on the final day, so the tension was palpable.
Swindon were clearly boosted, Chesterfield took every opportunity to slow the pace of the game, determined to see out the opening 15 minutes of so without too many scares. In that vital quarter of an hour, only one real heart in mouth moment when the Swindon scorer blazed one just wide of the post. The only time the hosts threatened to take the lead they needed.
The dreaded next concession came, for Spireites, at the right end of the park. A poetic chest down and back heel, tight on the chalk from Bonis, but three parts of nowt on the cards for Armando.
Abracadobra. Those magic feet weaved a mesmerising spell as he darted into the box, passed low, nutmegging Ripley, for Dilan Markanday to burst in late to bundle the ball home from, in his own words, six centimetres. The marquee summer signing scoring arguably the most important goal of the season to date.
Relief for sure amongst what we believe to be the biggest ever travelling contingent for a regulation league game to a stadium over 100 miles from home, 1,368 to Oxford United on Easter Saturday 2011 the previous high.
Still half an hour plus to go, but with the draw being a result Chesterfield owned, Swindon had to score twice. But withAaron Drinan, who’d been voted the Best Player in L2 andbagged 28 in all competitions this season, plus a giant striker on as sub, Ollie Palmer, who was instrumental in Wrexham’s recent rise, Swindon had the armoury and the ammunition to do just that. But Town had a Boot.
Step up the keeper. Shin save then an incredible triple to poleaxe Palmer from close range. Ryan stepped in after the Oldham debacle and has appeared in eight L2 games this season, six wins, two draws. Saturday night chats with Club Historian Stuart Basson ensued, and we are pretty sure that no-one else (in any position) has ended a regulation season unbeaten in so many games in the club’s EFL history, though a goalkeeper called Joe Mitchell, signed from Coventry City in 1921, played the last 12 games (W9 D3) in that season’s Midland League without being on the losing side. Nine wins for Ryan including the play-offs will suffice.
Top day, one for the memories, but the objective is still unfulfilled, we need three more shows to match this one, to give PC the experience of the wonderful feeling those of usthat are old enough remember in 1995, seeing off The Stags (a Nottinghamshire based outfit of course) in an epic two-leg semi-final before comfortably despatching old rivals Bury in a 2-0 win at Wembley.
Notts then. County beat us in the play-offs in 2021, last minute winner after we’d twice led. County won the shoot-out at Wembley in 2023 after twice equalising, late in the 90, late in extra time. Heartbreak. Since that encounter in North London, it’s been P4 W3 D1 in the EFL in Spireites’ favour.
Martin Paterson’s Magpies drew with form team Bristol Rovers at the weekend to end a run of 14 games with no draws; seven won, seven lost. At the start of that sequence, Notts were ahead of promoted MK Dons in the table and level on points with the third placed side, Swindon Town(we were in position #8), so there’s bound to be some sort of disappointment associated with not maintaining the pace to finish in the automatic spots.
Those two play-off defeats against our rivals were both one-off games. Only two-legger against The Magpies? 1980/81 Anglo-Scottish Cup Final, a 1-0 win at home, Notts led 1-0 on 90 in the second leg before, right at the end of extra time, Alan Crawford back heeled home from close range to bag the prize. Same outcome, fewer nerves. Third time lucky in the play-offs against County please.
Has the season been successful? For me, not yet, but the last few weeks has seen the best of the team in terms of application, fight, pride, control and results which makes me think that even in the event of disappointment, the club is in the right hands, moving in the right direction and destined, sooner rather than later, to be back to where we were ten years ago, but as a much stronger, more cohesiveclub.
Phil’s Positive: Going into the season’s extension as the form team with win-doubles in the bank against each of our potential rivals!
Next Match: It’s the play-off so it must be Notts County(first leg), at home, Sunday 10 May at 6pm. Listen to the build-up on 1866 Sport from 5pm with commentary being on the subscription platform, then back on the App for After the Whistle. Hear from Danny Webb, Dilan Markanday, Armando Dobra, Lewis Gordon and Ryan Bootin the Swindon version of the podcast.
Chesterfield (4-2-3-1 to start): Boot; Curtis, McFadzean(Donacien 46), Swinkels, Gordon; Braybrooke (Dickson90+3), Stirk; Markanday, Mandeville (Naylor 70), Dobra(Berry 81); Bonis (Grigg 90+3). Subs (not used); Hemming, Pearce.
Goals: Bonis 19, Markanday 62 (Chesterfield), Middlemas 45+3 (Swindon)
Referee: Scott Oldham
Bookings: Bonis, Stirk (Chesterfield), Hoilett, Wilson-Brown, Middlemas (Swindon)
Swindon assistant Marcus Bignot was also shown a yellow card.
Attendance: 12989 (1936 from Chesterfield)
