Feb
19
Chesterfield 3 Southend United…
Category: Southend United |
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I saw the battle of Chesterfield.
It started badly with me paying seven quid for a �3.50 pay and display: I only noticed that I should have entered my registration number once I’d put �3.50 in the machine. The irritating piece of junk would not return my cash so I had to pay twice. Thanks, Chesterfield council, that one will really get the tourists flooding in. I wasn’t the only visitor to that car park to make that mistake.
The match kicked off after we had been treated to 100 dB of distortion from the PA system with the sun dazzling most of us on our right. The first half was diabolical: put simply, we allowed Chesterfield to pass the ball right through us while ourselves attempting to play a long-ball game. Someone somewhere needed to tell the players that we are more than capable of playing a passing game.
After 26 minutes, the all too evitable happened and Chesterfield scored. Our performance worsened from there on as we sat back and allowed the team from the only town in England unable to construct a spire to look good. It was like watching third division football.
Half-time: one of the Yorkshire Blues took the opportunity to walk round the terrace personally asking almost everyone in the crowd to sing up. We had, in the first half, perhaps been too appalled at the spectacle unfolding in front of us to open our mouths in anything other than astonishment.
At the beginning of the second-half, Maher, who had earlier gone off for treatment and then only been allowed back on the pitch after two changes of shirt (there were apparently spots of blood on the first change), was substituted for Pettefer. “We’re sunk,” I thought aloud.
A few minutes later, the ref saw Janos Kovac handle the ball in the penalty area. Interestingly, Jupp appeared to be suggesting to the ref that this was not, in fact, the case but, for once, the ref followed the rules and showed a soon-to-be tearful Kovac the red card. Freddy Eastwood shot the ball in to the centre of the goal for the equaliser. Was it only a couple of years ago that we missed almost every penalty we were ever awarded?
Perhaps shell-shocked by the apparent unfairness of the penalty, Chesterfield lost their stride and Eastwood scored his second. I was convinced we needed a third to nail the game. Soon I was to be proven right as Chesterfield equalised, only to score their third two or three minutes later.
Chesterfield’s fans, who clearly had not been listening to the silence from our end, suggested that we weren’t singing any more.
Now we were starting to play as a team. Goater was flagging and Bradbury was clearly preparing to come on to replace him. As I was commenting on how I had yet to see Goater score and was watching Bradbury warm up, we were awarded a corner. Moments later I realised that I was still to see Goater score but I could at least watch him celebrate his goal, the third equaliser of the afternoon.
Eastwood was soon called up for offside. The linesman had been having a poor afternoon, unable to tell the difference between a well-timed and quick run and poor positioning. Eastwood was yellow-carded for, so it seemed to me, looking disappointed at this decision. He misses the next match. Bradbury and Lawson came on for Goater and Cole.
Then the moment of brilliance, Eastwood received the ball and ran with it. Bradbury was in a good position to receive it. Lawson too was well-positioned. Chesterfield defenders appeared to fill the box and I mentally implored Eastwood to pass the ball.
Alright, I might have shouted something along the lines of “Pass it you [expletive deleted] greedy [offspring of unmarried parents]“.
Eastwood kept the ball. He danced, as Stuart Hall might say, through the opposition. Seeing his moment, he looked up, paused a fraction of a second, and to the utter astonishment of all in attendance, cannoned the ball in to the top-left of the goal.
That, my friends, is a goal that should appear on Eastwood’s career highlights video once he’s lifted the World Cup.
That also is why we’re top of the league.
As I was leaving the ground, a disgruntled Steeplette moaned that the best team had been beaten by a bunch of cheats. Yeah right. Anyone who can think that Chesterfield were the best team has clearly either just left their first football match or was watching the game through rose-tinted glasses.
Chesterfield: Roche, O’Hare, Kovacs, Downes, Picken, O’Hara, Allott, Niven, Hurst (Blatherwick 75), Larkin (Folan 57), Hall.
Subs Not Used: Heath, Davies, Smith.
Sent Off: Kovacs (51).
Goals: Larkin 27, Niven 63, Hurst 66.
Southend: Flahavan, Jupp, Wilson, Prior, Barrett, Gower, Maher (Pettefer 45), Cole (Lawson 81), Guttridge, Goater (Bradbury 81), Eastwood.
Subs Not Used: Hunt, Smith.
Booked: Eastwood, Guttridge.
Goals: Eastwood 52 pen, 56, Goater 74, Eastwood 83.
Att: 4,527.
Ref: D Deadman (Cambridgeshire).
