The crucial month of April began with the home game against Crewe after a fortnight without a match. The boss made 4 team changes with Rizzo, Ward, Bailey and Davies coming in for Picken, Allott, Critchell and Shaw. Aaron Downes skippered the side for the first time. After an early effort by Rizzo, Alex soon had the ball in our net, but it was disallowed for offside. Respite was temporary, however, as Miller scored after eight minutes after a neat flick on by Higson. For once, we fought back well with good interplay and several half chances. We equalised just before the half hour with a goal from Downes at the back post, heading in Rizzo's well-flighted corner. The remainder of the half saw us on top, but without creating the vital opening.

The second period continued in similar vein and a flurry of substitutions saw the dangerous Maynard enter the fray together with the seemingly undangerous Shaw. Rico's substitution did the trick though, as Shaw spun superbly on 66 minutes to fire in a left wing cross to put us ahead. It was his first league goal since September. Lowry came on for Rizzo and Critchell replaced Davies as Mr Richardson sought to juggle his resources for the trip to Cheltenham on Monday. Alex came back stronger after this and Niven saved the day with an awesome tackle in the box to prevent a certain goal. We ran out deserved winners and the battle for staying up looked well and truly on.

Easter Monday's trip to relegation rivals Cheltenham was a real proverbial 6-pointer and the team selection was somewhat surprising with Kovacs in a right back and Bailey moving to midfield replacing Rizzo. Shaw came in for Larkin up front.  The rationale behind the Kovacs inclusion was the need to combat the Robins' considerable aerial threat. Buoyed by Saturday's win, 770 Spireites made the trip and were certainly lively in supporting the team. The first half was an animated affair with Town edging it and looking particularly dangerous from corners. Downes lurking at the back post created the best opening, but it fell, unfortunately to Kovacs, who is no striker and his effort was off-target. Ward looked especially lively but failed to create the clear-cut opening we required.

We failed to reproduce the same attacking verve after the break and were thankful for Roche's fine save 2 minutes in. Other than that, the hosts rarely looked like breaching our defences. Shaw twice went down under pressure in the Cheltenham box but the referee was unimpressed. After the second incident, the referee booked Shaw for diving-correctly in my opinion, but it's still annoying that we get penalised for it whilst most others get away with it. He was instantly replaced by the Chief, but he got little opportunity to contribute and the game petered out into a draw. One interesting fact to emerge is that 3 games for us at Cheltenham have produced just 1 goal-Luke Beckett's winner in our first game there.

The must win home game against Gillingham was up next and memories were still to the fore of the miserable last minute at Priestfield back in November when we entered the last minute winning and ended up defeated. The game followed a now familiar pattern-us on top against a well-organised defence and struggling to find a real opening. The first half had little action of real note, although we were close to going behind but for a magnificent save from stand-in keeper Michael Jordan on 56 minutes. The game wore on and everyone started getting edgy. We were desperately close to doing it as Ward's effort came down off the bar and Hall headed goalwards, but Larrieu recovered to make a fine save. Shaw then put in what looked like a certain goal, but Larrieu, going the wrong way, saw the ball cannon off his foot to safety. Heartbreak followed right at the end when the Gills, in a rare foray, scored an undeserved winner-the story of the season in miniature.

We had no chance of stopping up after this barring an absolute miracle and that was not delivered. A week later, the pattern was repeated at Sixfields where the Cobblers netted with their only real shot, from a free-kick where the ball was moving and that should have gone to us anyway. We missed a hatful of chances whilst their keeper, Bunn had a stormer and we lost 1-0 for the umpteenth time this season.

 The final game of the month saw us still not mathematically certain of the drop. To stay up, we had to win both remaining fixtures, whilst Cheltenham had to lose both theirs. Simple really, but it just didn't happen. Bradford City were the visitors and they needed a victory to have any chance of staying in League 1. As such, we were expecting a tough, tight game, but were surprised by the Bantam's abject surrender. The game saw the return of the Chief, for possibly his last match, whilst the much-missed and very popular Alan O'Hare returned at left-back for the first time since his ankle injury in November. Also in were Allott and Hall whilst Shaw, Larkin, Bailey and Kovacs dropped out.

Despite City having much of the ball and winning several corners, they failed to make any impression in the first half. We went ahead on 14 minutes when Ward's shot squirmed through Ricketts' hands to trickle over the line. Ward added a second on 28 as penalty area ping-pong left him with any easy tap-in from 10 yards. After the break, it was virtually 1 way traffic with Ricketts redeeming himself saving magnificently from Allott. He was soon picking the ball out of the net again though, as his skipper Bower diverted Ward's cross into his own net to sum up City's day. News of Cheltenham's impending victory spread round the ground to give a faintly weird atmosphere to the proceedings with both teams now relegated. City fans went up hugely in my estimation as they applauded Ward of the pitch at his 85^th minute substitution, but 5 minutes later, they were not as generous towards their own side as they trooped off dejectedly.

Man of the Season

All that was left of the month was Aaron Downes inevitably picking up all the playing awards, whilst Derek Niven got goal of the season for his winner against Manchester City in the Carling Cup. The awards dinner was not quite as gloomy as expected, though after the previous week's 10-year reunion of the FA Cup semi-final side, it was still a little muted.  Player of the month, in what was a pretty miserable time, again goes to Jamie Ward for his spark of excitement wherever he gets the ball. I'm convinced we'd have stopped up if he hadn't got injured against Vale.