Spireites start pre-season with victory

Glorious night at Causeway Lane saw the Spireites open their pre-season account with a victory in the traditional curtain raiser. Three second half goals saw us through in the heat of the English Summer.

New Signings Phil Picken & Paul Shaw started the game along with trialist Nathan Jarman from Barnsley, Michael Jordan on trial after being released from Arsenal was on the bench with Barry Roche starting the match. In a more traditional Spireite line up Roche was in goal, Picken and Alan O'Hare the full backs, with Blathers and Rueben Hazell at centre. Midfield had Mark Allot, Derek Niven, Nathan Jarman and Paul Hall, with an upfront pairing of Paul Shaw and Colin Larkin.

Indeed it was Larkin who was making all the running in the first half which saw him clear through on goal but a last minute tackle from a Gladiator defender upended the former stag player which brought a free kick and an almost certain red card if the game was played at a higher level, chances were few and far between in the first period with the heat being a major factor and sensibly the referee had two drink breaks for the players and officials.

Second half saw the Spireites turn to the Chief, Aaron Downes and Michael Jordan and although we had sporadic attacks Matlock started to look quite dangerous on the break with two quick forwards. But after 65 minutes it was Aaron Downes to break the deadlock from close range after some neat work and cross from Paul Hall. Three more substitutes were made by Roy Mcfarland, Jamie Jackson, Jamie Lowry and Reuben Wiggins-Thomas were brought on as Matlocks energy levels began to drop. Some keep ball in midfield enabled Mark Allott to drive home a beauty from around the 25 yard mark which zoomed past former spireite Andy Richmond and just two minutes later a speculative shot from Phil Picken outfoxed Richmond and made its way into the bottom corner. Kovacs came on for Reuben Hazel and the Spirits began to dominate with Jamie Jackson showing some neat touches and Wiggins-Thomas with some close control, Lowry played at full back on the right and was very reminiscent to a young Jamie Hewitt. We played out the final seconds to earn a very hard fought victory.

So the Banner Jones Middleton trophy is all ours yet again , with the Derbyshire Cup not being contested with Derby County anymore due to our County rivals non-interest maybe this fixture could replace it although I'm sure that Alfreton would want a say in that.

On to Hucknall Thursday and various changes again.

Paul Shaw started