Match Discussion: Game 27 - The Spireites (A)

[Dripsey3]

Derby day. Notts won away 3-2. Notts were 2-1 down in the 90th minute. 2 goals in injury time turned the game on its head and the Pies returned to Nottingham with all 3 points. Chesterfield are unbeaten in 3 but they haven't played since January 30th so they are bound to be rusty. Notts are flying and have the winning habit. I think it could be a tough game. Chesterfield will be well up for it but Notts have momentum. It could be a cracking game. 4-2 to Notts is my prediction. 

[menzinho]

I think Denton (their 6ft 6” striker) being injured is a good thing for us.

On the one hand it made them quite predictable to play as every other ball would be launched in his direction. If you can nullify him you pretty much kill their attack. But he's not easy to deal with and always peeling off to D-KE and just his general threat from set-pieces/crosses always made him a danger. And Asante with 7 goals in 9 is one to watch but I wonder how many of those goals benefited from playing alongside him…

I saw an article online that suggests they’ll play 3-5-2. I’ve always thought we tend to do quite well against that. We’ll get the advantage if we play down the flanks.

Even though we got the win against Kings Lynn the performance was quite lack-lustre so I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a few changes. Maybe Effiong and one of Sam or Miller to start?

I think as both teams have improved it’ll be a tighter game with fewer chances. I’ll say 2-1 Notts.

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

1 hour ago, menzinho said:

I think Denton (their 6ft 6” striker) being injured is a good thing for us.

 

Ah really? That's good. I thought Ardley would start Turner to deal with him, and I'd be happier if we kept the Lacey-Rawlinson partnership that works far better. 

[liampie]

we need to beat chesterfield, keep the pressure mounting but provided we perform well whatever happens will be fine. i think we need to be a lot more attacking minded, as they will want to sit on the ball. when we beat them last time a round, notts did not get a hold of the ball and we were lucky to have beaten them in truth. their doing much better now too, so it will be difficult.

[RetroPie]

Goal down already, Notts needs to dig deep and overturn this.

If Chesterfield bag a second, I think we can say Notts did not turn up for the derby day game.

[liampie]

plenty of time to get something from the game but it dont sound like we are creating many clean chances on goal. if we can regroup in the second half, i think we could hit them on the break but the players need to work a bit harder.

create the chances and who knows, defending a 1-0 game will just lead to a loss.

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

We've been absolutely pathetic.

Fair play to Chesterfield, they have a game plan and are executing it well, but we really are helping them. We can't keep hold of the ball, we've hoofed everything and that is bread and butter for Maguire and Hollis. Get the ball on the deck and run at that immobile back 3!!! 

Pilling been absolutely terrible too. They've clicked that he's smaller and they are taking advantage of that. But jesus wept, he takes so many chances with the ball at his feet, he's trying to take on their striker! Madness. Somebody give his head a wobble. 

[Dripsey3]

Let's be honest. Notts have been winning but the performances haven't been great. We scraped a win at King's Lynn. That luck was going to run out at some point. Chesterfield were by far the better side today. No arguments. 

[Elite_pie]

That was an awful performance.  We were slightly better in the second half but created nothing, and their keeper didn't have a single save to make.  I suppose the one consolation is that we only lost by a single goal, because a fair scoreline would have been 0-3.

[ARLukomski]

The manner of the defeat is so annoying. We just didn't look bothered at all. It was like they accepted it after going a goal down. Our lack of urgency and creativity lost us any chance of getting anything from the game.

Annoys me how we can go on a good run of form and then just produce a performance like that. Happened with Boreham Wood at home earlier in the season. Won against Chesterfield and Wealdstone, drew to Dagenham and then won against Woking, then just played poor against Wood. Beat Stockport the week after, so it makes you think why did we play so poor the previous week, when we know we have the ability to play well consistently.

Seriously need to get this goals for tally up. 26 in 20 games isn't good enough for a team wanting to win promotion. The Wealdstone, Dagenham, Barnet and Altrincham performances show how good we can be infront of goal. Solihull last 20 as well.

Go again Tuesday

[menzinho]

Yeah a really poor first half cost us there. Chesterfield pressed well, just knocking it long content winning thrown ins and corners, but we're easy to pin in cos we get everyone back for them. Goal was poor, needless from Miller in the first place and Pilling probably should’ve saved it…

Second half we were better but the general passing, final ball and crossing was still off. Just didn’t test their keeper enough.

I’m disappointed we let Chesterfield get away with such a poor second half – A shadow of their first half performance, just time wasting and general s’housery. Someone said the Chesterfield manager has a coaching degree from the Joan Cruyff Uni… Well they are about as far away as possible that you can get from total football.

[liampie]

very poor game i thought, we just notts never looked like they could step it up long enough to turn the game around. a poor defeat.

[Elite_pie]

2 hours ago, ARLukomski said:

The manner of the defeat is so annoying. We just didn't look bothered at all. It was like they accepted it after going a goal down. Our lack of urgency and creativity lost us any chance of getting anything from the game.

There is no doubting that we have an excellent defensive record, but at what cost? It's great not to concede because you can't lose, but the flip side is that if you don't score you can't win. Somewhere there is a balance between all out attack and dogged defence, and I think Ardley errs too much on the side of caution. I believe we have genuine attacking options if we give them the ball earlier in a bit more space. When the build up play is so slow, ponderous and predictable it means defenders have plenty of time to get back and mark. I think it has a very negative impact on the number of goals we score.

[DangerousSausage]

We started brightly and positively, but as the first half wore on Chesterfield imposed themselves on the game. Their tactics were simple but effective - high pressing, long balls, long throw-ins into the box - but in the first half we didn't cope at all. The long balls up front from us were more a sign of desperation on our part than an actual tactic. In the second half we kept it on the ground, dominated possession and actually played it around them, but a combination of dreadful crossing and predictable build-up play meant we could barely get a shot away.

All in all, really disappointing. We've repeatedly been found wanting against teams that play like this, and until we come to terms with it the play-offs are the best we can hope for.

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

16 hours ago, DangerousSausage said:

the play-offs are the best we can hope for.

That will be an issue for us though. Anybody that plays us in there will know if they play like Harrogate or Chesterfield, they'll beat us hands down.