4-0 impresses the Germans!
Four visitors from Chesterfield's twin town of Darmstadt in Germany were impressed by the football Chesterfield played in beating Hereford at Saltergate last night - and by the forecasting ability of a Chesterfield councillor!
Wolfgang Knöß, Patrick Strerath, Frank Jebautzke and Akim Rioseco are visiting England on a football-watching trip and were invited to a civic reception at Chesterfield Town Hall before yesterday's Division Two game, which was broadcast live by Sky TV.
They were welcomed by the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, Cllrs Ray Russell and Mark Higginbottom, and former Mayor, Cllr David Stone, who visited Darmstadt during his term of office in 1995.
Cllr Stone, who is the Council's Lead Member on twinning, was prophetically correct when he predicted a 4-0 win for the Spireites - "One goal for each of you", he told the German visitors. How right he was!
Chesterfield FC's stadium announcer, Howard Borrell, has recently been involved in a twinning link with Darmstadt and decided to make contact with their football club.
Many e-mails later Wolfgang Knöß, General Manager of SV Darmstadt 98, decided to visit the UK, with three friends to take in a few games.
They arrived in Manchester on Saturday and had planned to watch Bury in their local derby against Stockport but torrential rain put paid to those plans. FC United's game, a possible alternative, was also hit by the weather but on Sunday they were able to take in the Manchester City v West Ham Premiership game before attending Chesterfield's televised game.
It's currently the winter break in Germany but SV Darmstadt, after relegation last season, look set to bounce straight back and currently sit seven points clear at the top of the Oberliga and will hopefully complete promotion to the Regionalliga which is then just one promotion away from the newly-created national third division of the Bundesliga.
Wolfgang, Patrick, Frank and Akim were shown some of the civic regalia at the Town Hall before the highspot of their trip, Chesterfield's 4-0 victory over fellow promotion-chasers in a style which prompted Sky TV pundit Garry Birtles to say: "League 2? - more like Champions League!"
Wolfgang later spoke for the visitors: "The game and the atmosphere was superb. The day before we went to Manchester City, this was much better, more entertaining and more passion".
The four want to come again and Wolfgang would love to arrange a pre-season game between the teams from the twin towns, so impressed was he with last night's show.
