Blast from the Past - Chesterfield.

[cj01]

Posted by cj01 on behalf of Owd Jim.

Town’s opponents – Chesterfield

The overall League record is:

	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD
Home	12	6	5	1	17	6	+11
Away	11	2	3	6	10	15	-5
Total	22	8	8	7	27	21	+6

Best and Worst Gates:

League	Best	Worst	Average
Home	2011/2012 = 15,380	1988/1989 = 5,819	9,846
Away	1980/1981 = 7,819	2002/2003 = 4,194	5,687

Best and Worst Gates: FA Cup, League Cup and Lower Divisions Cup

FA Cup	Best	Worst	Average
Away	1928/1929 = 15,923	1989/1990 = 6,687	10,406
League Cup	Best	Worst	Average
Away	2005/2006 = 2,922

Lower Divisions Cup	Best	Worst	Average
Away	2009/2010 = 3,003

Apart from one meeting in the FA Cup Round 3 in 1928-29, which Town won away 7-1, we did not meet the Spireites until 1973-74 when Town were in the middle of The Great Slide. Town did the ‘double’ that season winning 1-0 at home and 2-0 away. The next time the ‘double’ was achieved was in the promotion year of 1982-83 with the scores being 3-1 and 1-0.

The 7-1 FA Cup win on January 28th 1929 was the best gate ever between the clubs, 15,923 saw George Brown score 4, Alex Jackson 1 and Laurence Cumming 2. George Brown is of course Town’s top scorer with 159 goals. He was transferred to Aston Villa in the following August. That game apart, most games have been low scoring; that is until the last meeting when Town won 4-0 at the Mac in the last relegation season in 2002-03; the Terriers were beaten 0-1 in the away fixture. Town have won all three FA Cup meetings, the others, all away being in Round 2 1-0 in 1981-82 and 2-0 in 1989/90.

Town won the first ever League Cup contest in 2005/06 by a score of 4-2 after twice being pegged back. The Spireites then gained ample revenge with a 4-3 win in the league encounter at the Recreation Ground with a 3-0 first half. Hudson scored for Town on 80 minutes but a penalty 5 minutes later saw the score move to 4-1. Then a late burst by the visitors with 2 goals right at the end gave the scoreline some respectability. The return match was an unmitigated disaster. Watched by the best gate ever for a game between the sides, with an automatic place up for grabs, the home side outplayed the Spireites in the first half, but had only 1 Graham goal to show for it. In the second half gutless play, inept tactics and overall rubbish play saw the visitors run out worthy 2-1 winners to score their first victory on Town turf and their first double.

The away game in T2006/07 ended in a forgettable dull 0-0 draw which meant that Town had failed to score in their last 3 away games and had found the net, legally, only 4 times in their last 9 games overall. The return match saw a lousy first half by Town and a deserved 0-1 score. Much better second half effort was memorable because it saw Matt Young’s first goal for Town and the game ended 1-1. Chesterfield was relegated that season.

In 2009/2010 the sides met at Saltergate in the LD Cup Round 2 where Town were inept and trailed 1-3 at the start of injury time only for Pilkington to score his second goal of the night and Nathan Clarke equalised before the final whistle, then the silly sods lost 2-4 on penalties.

The Spireites came to town on Boxing Day, sitting rock bottom it should have been easy for Town but the lads made heavy weather of it and just about deserved the 1-0 win (Rhodes – who else?) in a rather poor game. It was the first Boxing Day win for Lee Clark and the first win in December 2011 for Town.

The Spireites are still rock bottom 4 points and a game short of safety. Town’s record at Chesterfield is very poor as you can see from above. Recent home results for Chesterfield have been fairly good, in reverse order:
FRANCHISE 1-1,
Tranmere 1-0,
CHARLTON 0-4,
SHEFF WED 1-0,
Bournemouth 1-0,
Exeter 0-2,
Oldham 1-1,

Notts County 3-1 and Sheff Utd 1-0 both managed to beat them at Chesterfield but history is against the Terriers. As Town are draw specialists I can see yet another draw on the horizon and reckon it may well end up 1-1 as the Spireites are fighting for Div 3 survival and will certainly put up strong resistance. On the positive side of the ledger Town is hard to beat which is why I am expecting yet another draw.

[ben1142]

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