As nil nil's go last nights was excellent and it lived up to clashes that we have had against Carlisle in years gone by, whilst we were mainly the better side on ball possession alone there was always a threat of a goal from Carlisle's three man attack of Bridges,Gall and Hawley. However when we were on the ball Gall and Hawley were pushed back into midfield and it worked for them as they fought to stop us getting in that final ball. From our point of view the only thing that was disappointing was that we seemed to rush the game instead of our usual patient if not frustrating at times build up, Roy Mac or Rico had obviously seen something for us to get crosses in quickly rather than bide our time, most of these crosses though ended up in the keepers hands which was particularly annoying for me and the chap stood behind me who was getting quite aggressive in particular to Kevan Hurst but only in speak and not in physical action.
I thought that we played well and like most of last season lacked that finishing touch which we hoped Paul Shaw would bring. Shaw made a wonderful chance of his own, a cross from Hurst found Shaw around twenty yards out a his neat touch and shot over the crossbar was class although he didn't hit the target something twanged in his hamstring and he eventually limped off about ten minutes later to be replaced by the Chief and a whole new tactical game was to be tried and tested. Looking on it the side which finished last nights game was exactly the same side as last season, so have we developed? It's hard to tell from two games but my assumption is yes, everyone is a year older a year wiser and a year more confident in their own abilites.
Moving on to the crowd which was around 4500 Carlisle brought around 500 which is excellent for a Wednesday night and judging by how many Cumbrian replica shirts their were around I thought at one stage their support would be around a thousand.
Nigel Spackman was witnessing the Spireites draw at home yet again and still keep our won once at home this year record going it will be interesting to see if he enjoyed the game and if he was worried at all, we shall wait and see.
On a final note Mark Allott made his 200th Spireite appearance last night and Paul Hall made his 50th in a blue shirt, congratulations to both.
This Review is sponsored by The White Hart, Calow,Chesterfield.