Match Discussion: Game 4 - The Spireites (H)

[PON_News]

Game 4 - The Spireites (H)

Team: Chesterfield

Date: 20/08/2022

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Luke Williams opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

[DonnyNotts]

Think we need to be brave in home games, obviously not cavalier but not Conservative.  In my opinion we were not brave enough at times last season and dropped points because of it

[Dripsey3]

The jury is still out on the 3-5-2 formation but LW will persist with it. I'd prefer 4-4-2 given that we have 2 quality strikers and a third that gives us something different when required. 

Chesterfield have improved game by game. They were well deserved winners over Wrexham and looked like genuine title contenders. They are one of the few teams who will come to ML and take the game to Notts. All the momentum is with Chesterfield. 

[Dripsey3]

Talk about a game of 2 halves. Notts were poor in the first half. A couple of changes and a more direct approach and Notts picked up a point. Hopefully LW will stick with 2 up front and a more direct approach. It works. 

[DonnyNotts]

Good result all things considered

[menzinho]

I’ve seen a few people say the first half was dreadful, it wasn’t good but it wasn’t that bad. We were pretty much in control of the game, but in an attacking sense we were poor. Second half still largely poor but then the subs came on the game got chaotic and we just really benefited from it. However, I still didn’t feel comfortable with our defending. The game got very stretched and there was a lot of space for Chesterfield, luckily they didn’t really exploit it. Credit to the players though for getting back in it, cos when we went 2-0 down I thought that was it.

I know there’s more to football than formations but I just don’t think the 3-5-2 suited us there. First half no real threat, and then for that last 30 mins we were all over the place. But for me the wingbacks are key positions and Chicksen at LWB is counter-productive. He really didn’t cause them any problems and the space he left behind caused us more problems. I really like Chicks and he didn’t always get that much support but playing him that high just isn’t his game. It suits Nemane more because he can at least beat his man. And Rodrigues played a lot deeper too, really wasn't able to do enough in an attacking sense for us today.

Weird, a largely uneventful game but a wild last 30 mins. I’ll take that point but still a lot to work on for me.

[DangerousSausage]

August looked difficult on paper and so it's proving, but I suppose we should be glad of a point after trailing 2-0. Looking forward to seeing the goals tomorrow.

From my point of view it looks a lot like LW doesn't know his best team yet.

[Chris]

I actually did find the first half difficult to watch, Notts looked like a team that was going through the motions. Rushing creativity, losing ground and pressuring ourselves. Simply put, Notts made it very easy for Chesterfield to begin with.

There was little to no service up front and, I honestly don't recall testing Fitzsimons in the first 45 minutes. Did we actually have any attempts on goal?

Chesterfield's gain was our own undoing, the defending leading to the goal was extremely poor and for someone who I personally feel should be played out wide. Richard Brindley deserves credit for his efforts; it's a shame his work went unnoticed by those around him. As his block/defending didn't match those who could've dealt with the building threat better. The harsh view I feel, is blaming Slocombe for it. He had no chance, his commands of 'away' was being ignored. What I don't understand is why we can't just boot the ball away when in these situations, not that I believe playing out from the back is the issue.

It's more the inability to absorb pressure when it builds to easy chances.

Playing out from the back is important, as it does calm things down and space does emerge, but we need to exploit this opening better. At times, I feel we just need to clear the ball as far away as possible, re-group and stay alert. If their opening goal had been a wonder strike, it wouldn't be as annoying but the fact Chesterfield kept pushing for the opener whilst we were defending like blind mice. None of our attacks in the first 45 minutes seemed likely to trouble their defence, does this mean the booing was deserved? Not at all, I find that poor support. Yet Notts was dire in the first half, with no actual solid purpose or directives.

Austin and Scott coming on made a huge difference.

Credit to Mitchell I thought he actually did okay, but he just doesn't seem to be a natural goal threat. I thought some key players had been quite poor, Rodrigues for one who continues to fall quite short. His engine never seems to get going, plus his greediness is quite annoying when he's simply not doing well.

Great comeback and, I do feel the timing was good as Chesterfield couldn't handle us, but this needs to be more than just 30 minutes. If the pressure had been applied, a win could've been the final result. I do believe we had enough chances in the second half but when Notts defends like we did at times - we will only occur problems rather than creating headaches for the opposition.