[Devongone]

So we lost 3-2 twice.

And that makes 3 wins 2 defeats. If we continue like that that'll be 81 points from 45 games and we'll be wanting to win our last match to ensure home games in the play-offs.

Of course there's loads to worry about and be critical of; this is Chesterfield after all. When MA signed Kyel Reid he said that his boss said he could have a player - so this stuff about pretending the advantages of a small squad went straight out the window. Today I saw our "new" administrative structure, who is that boss and how is he qualified to decide on the number of building blocks necessary for a successful squad in this football? (And is "successful" even part of the issue?)

You spent ages on the toilets, the queues and the pies before you even got to Salford. What was the game like?

[Dancingwilldoit]

I didnt make it due to close family sickness. SGB ended up in my seats. I wouldn't read too much into 2 losses. We were off on a flier and we never make life easy for ourselves.
If we beat Barnet on Sat we will be bouncing again or at least we will till Monday. Hartlepool away should be interesting.
I think MA needs to change his team selections a bit though. Carter being injured doesn't bode well and we need to stop the hoofball. We have the players to play through midfield so lets give it a try.

[Devongone]

Hope the family member is improving.

How badly is Carter injured, anybody know?

Who are these players who can play through midfield, especially if we haven't got Carter for a bit? Well done with the seats by the way!

[SaltergateBorn]

I spent the week-end with the family and only got back home this lunch-time so haven`t really had chance to offer my pearls of `wisdom` as yet - and I was going to wait until I`d seen MA`s interview on Spireites Digital before I did; so far I`ve only seen the couple of quotes on the website. But seein` as you asked - here goes.

MA was quoted as praising the players for their effort - I agree with him on that point - and saying he thought we were the better team and unlucky to lose - I don`t on either of those. To me, the game was a mirror-image of Braintree in that the halves were changed around. On Saturday we played okay in the first half and perhaps should have been ahead. Reid looked very lively and gave their full-back a bit of a roasting, I thought, and we missed a couple of decent chances. Unfortunately Rooney showed that he has too much class for this level - although Maguire was playing far too narrow, I thought - and all we had to show for our efforts was Hines` brilliantly manufactured goal. Fair play to him, though, he got the goal through his persistence and effort.

In the second half we reverted to playing the same hoofball (as Dancing so accurately describes it) that we did in the first half against Braintree. Admittedly Carter`s injury didn`t help but, as my son pointed out during the game, playing the `forward press` is fine as long as your midfield pushes on as well to close down the space you leave behind. When you don`t have a midfield that ain`t easy and you run the risk of surrendering midfield completely to the opposition - which is what we did. We threw a load of long balls - and throws - at their defence, but apart from the one occasion when Hines actually got round the back of them we created absolutely nothing. Again, a total lack of creativity.

Salford, on the other hand, looked dangerous a few times. Their second goal came from a free header and was almost a carbon copy of a chance we gave them a few minutes earlier when another header, equally free, was on its way into the top corner (I was right behind the line of it) until one of the Salford players obligingly turned it over the bar for us. Damned decent of him, I thought. We have plenty of height in our back line and really shouldn`t be allowing free headers like that. Work to be done, Mr Allen.

Their winner came a few minutes after MA had taken Weir off. I`ve no idea whether he was injured or not, but you have to wonder whether it would have been scored if he had still been on the pitch. Their lad was given enough space and time to comb his hair - probably with cut and blow-dry included - before he picked his spot. Even in the absence of Weir, somebody should have closed him down.

There we are then; they`re my thoughts, for what they`re worth. Disappointing, and MA certainly has work to do on defensive organisation if nothing else.

No seats, Dancing, I`m afraid. The only seating was down the sides and we were standing behind the goal. I haven`t done that for years; great fun. It looks like MA will have to change the team, with Carter apparently being out for 3 weeks or so. That is worrying, I agree, but it could have been far worse than seems to be the case. When it happened, I feared another Wedgebury situation.

[bluepooch]

They pulled us apart a few times second half when we had Muggleton and Barry on .I was very despondent straight after the game but having watched the highlights we had a quite few good efforts, certainly far more chances than the majority of away games in the past few years .We were in the game all the way through .
A few observations.
The Jury is out for me on Jalal,Ive only seen him make one save in 4 games and he should have got something on Rooneys goal .However looking at the alternative we probably have to stick with him.
Drew is definitely not playing as well as he has in the past .
Hines is by far the best player in the team so far and the only creative force we have .
I though Reid did well considering it was his first game for a while .
Muggletons throws are obviously very predictable and if the defences are prepared we wont get much out of them.

[spireitematt]

I didn't go either but did listen to it on Salford City's radio stream. Sounded like I missed a great game and also seen the goals as well on Salford's youtube channel. Like you say Blue the first one he should have got a hand to it but the other 2 were pretty good goals. Our first goal was unbelievable lucky.

[SaltergateBorn]

Do you really think Jawal was that much at fault with the first goal? It was low and hit sweetly with power; that`s a difficult combination for any keeper, especially at this level.

You`re right, Matt, at the end of the day it was definitely an entertaining game with plenty of pace from both teams and I have to say that. putting aside the disappointment at the result, I enjoyed the game. On the basis of the second half, Blue, I agree that Hines was the only creative force but on the first half showing I have high hopes of Kyel Reid giving us a bit more of a cutting edge in weeks to come.

Whether a goal is a `good` goal or comes from defensive weakness is one of those things that depends on which angle you`re looking from. If we had scored any of Salford`s goals, I would probably have said that that they were good goals, but as it is........

I suppose my biggest problem is that, the last time I saw us play before a couple of weeks ago, we were in League 1. Perhaps I still have to get acclimatised to the level we`re playing at now.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Hope the family member is improving.

How badly is Carter injured, anybody know?

Who are these players who can play through midfield, especially if we haven't got Carter for a bit? Well done with the seats by the way!

Dev,
Smith is a left back and Barry a Right back, play JBW, Weir, Reid and Talbot across the middle. If either of the 2 full backs go forward there's somebody there to plug the gap. You can even swap the around if you want. Drop Rowley in the middle late on when you are winning. Perm any 1 from 3 to play with Hines up front and you have a team. Before you ask who the 3rd striker is, Amanchi was on the bench Sat and I don't think he is just a bench warmer. That lad looks good and strong enough to me to do a job for us.

[SaltergateBorn]

I`ve just read through my initial post again and have realised that in parts it does sound rather more negative than I intended it to. I guess I`m just slightly disappointed at the quality of football we`ve played at times during the 3 games I`ve seen this season; I suspect that the last sentence of my last post may have something to do with it, but I actually did enjoy the game as a whole. I`ll probably come up again on Saturday for Barnet anyway.

It also occurs to me that the comment I made about the fun in standing behind the goal came across as being facetious. I frequently am, but this time I wasn`t. It brought back many happy memories of my younger days, before fans were segregated, when I used to do this as a matter of course for the whole match. Those were those halcyon days when you could change ends at half-time.

It`s a shame that the only game in the Midlands this year will be Solihull Moors on New Year`s Day, as Salford has given me the urge to see a few more non-league grounds. I understand all the safety reasons for all-seater stadia, but it has made me realise that you do lose some of the atmosphere when you`re sitting in a stand rather than standing on a terrace.

[Devongone]

First, SaltergateBorn, I thought it was a lovely report. Informative and it seemed balanced to me. I can only say thank you very much. I'd read the Non-League Paper report, our website and Bob's Board comments, but I always like to hear comments from someone I know, whose general standpoint I get.

As to Pooch's point, my opinion is that Muggleton's throw SHOULD be a huge weapon, but it's like a fast bowler at cricket, if he bowls you the same ball every time however fast it gets easier and easier. I said it before and meant it, I really would have him practicing it every day. He needs variations, flatter and faster and plans that everyone is in on too. I really do think we should learn from Rugby Union's line-out's coded calls. It shouldn't be all about how far he can fling it. He already can reach the back post FFS, there aren't many around who can, though I think Matt will tell us Buxton have a real long throw man too. BUT if we don't do much with Muggleton's throws I'm with Blue, we make having signed him just nepotism, his throw is the only thing he has that makes him special and so far we've had him either on the bench, or haven't used his throw to our advantage. (If you had an ace dead-ball kicker you'd be looking to get free kicks around the box and corners, and hopefully you'd have a few moves planned.)

I was interested by Dancing's quick midfield solution which I think contained a mistake ........ we only have one real midfield player fit other than Rowley and that's surely Curtis Weston, or is he out too? Jerome Binnom-Williams is a left back. Why? Because in midfield you have to be able to take the ball with your back to a man, turn and go forward in some way - and I don't think he can do that. You can get him forward from left back and he's dangerous, but play has to be in front of him, he has to run onto it. I thought Saltergate's comment about Maguire playing too narrow sounded wise. That's where centre backs tend to go wrong at full back. I'd really want him in the team every week at centre back ..... dunno what anyone else thinks.

Also I'm on much the same path as Blue regarding Jalal. I think he is an ordinary keeper, who last season was lucky enough to play behind a good defence. A lot of people thought Grant Smith from Boreham Wood was really the best keeper in the National League last season, but interestingly he has not made into Lincoln's team this season, but Bruno Andrade up front has made that leap. Nevertheless we do have to pray Jalal is never injured considering the cover we have available.

In truth, currently quite a few teams have more potent-looking strike forces than us, few will be terrified of coming up against our midfield and our defence has now proved it is well-capable of conceding three goals. Whilst this doesn't mean we have to be despondent it does mean MA has to look towards making considerable improvements if he has the resources.