The Shrimps of Morecambe were the first opponents of November with their second visit to Saltergate following their FA Cup victory of a few years ago. We were unchanged from the previous week's trip to Darlington, though Fletcher returned to the bench in place of the Chief. The game started abysmally as we gave the visitors a left wing free kick within seconds of kick-off. We stood around dozily as the ball beyond the back stick was headed back across goal for Curtis to nod in from a few feet out. After 2 minutes Drench felled Lester in the box to concede a penalty. Ward took it and Drench redeemed himself by saving it. We then regrouped and dominated the first half without scoring, though we were thankful for Roche's fine reactions to thwart Morecambe in a rare raid when Kovacs' over struck header almost set the visitors up.

Jack grabbed two against the Shrimps

The second period saw more dominance as we swept forward and our reward was an excellent brace from Jack Lester, firstly swopping onto Lowry's right wing ball to score from a tight angle, then heading in from Bastians' left wing cross to give us the lead 8 minutes later. We had numerous opportunities to further the lead, especially when Ward and Leven were through virtually unchallenged but then made a hash of it and the Shrimps survived. Deep into the 4 minutes added time we threw away 2 more points as the referee hurried us up at a throw-in well into the Morecambe half. Leven was ambling over to take it as Rooney had the ball and the ref motioned for him to hurry up. Rooney duly threw the ball in, but Leven didn't realise it and picked the ball up in the field of play, thus conceding a free-kick. Morecambe launched it into our box and we half cleared it to Leven just outside the box. He obviously got no call as he had time to hoof the ball anywhere so he rushed a header and the ball wasn't cleared. Rooney had a go and sliced it and it came back to the edge of the box where Grand smashed it past Roche for an undeserved equaliser. Frustrating didn't come into it!

The short trip to Sincil Bank was next for the Tuesday night entertainment and 900 plus Spireites made the journey. It proved to be a good decision especially in the first half where Jack Lester caused the Imps' defence no end of problems and picked up a hat-trick in just over half an hour. Unfortunately after a scintillating 42 minutes, we went to sleep just before the break and allowed N'Guessan in to score with a slight deflection off Downes. Following substitutions by Lincoln's new manager, Peter Jackson, the second half was a little more even. We managed to extend our lead, however, from the unlikeliest of sources: Janos Kovacs. The Hungarian netted his first goal for the club on 64 minutes after Rooney had headed on Bastians' left wing cross. The big man enjoyed his goal immensely and his celebrations could hardly be described as muted. The home side reduced the arrears again after another 2 minutes with a header from Bencherif and they caused some alarm at the back, though substitute Kevin Gray steadied things using his old head to good effect. So, this was a satisfying win against a team that looked better than their league position might suggest. The big downside was 4 bookings in the game.

Janos celebrates his first Spireite goal

Next up was our annual 1-game flirtation with the FA Cup with Tranmere visiting Saltergate. Pre-match, some lunatic with a 50^th birthday had a present of an on-pitch matchball ritual as ball sponsor and a picture with Derek Niven. The game itself was quite lively with the higher-league visitors looking the better side, but we took the lead just before the half-hour with a nifty strike from Jack Lester. Rovers equalised 8 minutes later with a Greenacre penalty after Shuker was felled in the box by Downes.

Town had the better of the second half but just could not find a goal. Ex-Tyke Anthony Kay did it though from a right wing corner with 7 minutes left; a stunning strike which gave Rovers a rather flattering lead. He then let his side down by giving away a penalty with 3 minutes left. For the third time this season though we missed with Coyne pushing away Lester's effort. All that remained was for Curran to be dismissed for an evil tackle on Downes-it deserved a straight red, but he went for his second yellow. It was out of character with the match as a whole but certainly left a sour taste. The defeat wasn't overly disappointing-I reckon Town fans now expect never to win an FA cup match again, no matter who we're paired against. That's now 6 years on the trot we've gone out in the first round.

A week later we had no game due to international call-ups for three of our team: Aaron Downes, Adam Rooney and Jamie Ward. So, we had to twiddle our thumbs for another week until our first trip to the new Stadium MK, home of Paul Ince's franchise FC. Picken and Downes were missing through suspension, which meant inclusion for Gray and Lowry. We started with Bastians on the right and Rooney on the left which seemed a bit odd to us supporter types. Also odd was our kit , which was a mix of both away outfits-red and white shirts with black shorts and socks. We looked more like Rotherham than us.

Internationals call-ups for Ward Rooney and Downes led to a blank weekend

The game commenced with a flurry of activity and Lester went close on 7 minutes. MK then went straight down the pitch and scored, outpacing Lowry down the left and squaring for the unmarked Wright to side-foot home. Roche had no chance. Town fought back strongly, however, but didn't really look menacing until Rooney and Bastians switched over. On 32 minutes the pair combined splendidly to fashion an equaliser. Rooney's right wing cross was controlled by the German in one touch and blasted past ex-Swan Gueret for his first Town goal. His celebration told you he enjoyed it.

The home side then came back at us as they tried to regain the lead, but the break came with no further score.

Town took the game to the table-toppers after the break and on 52 minutes took the lead with a peach of a goal. Lowry's long, threaded ball dissected the Don's defence and Ward, in the inside-left channel, took it into his stride, advanced to the edge of the box and slotted past Gueret to find the net in style. The game then saw both sides attacking with vigour and on 68 minutes we had some foul luck when Swailes took Lester out from behind and the striker was carried off with what looked like a serious injury. The MK man merely saw yellow. Chances came and went and substitutions abounded until injury time when O'Hare was adjudged to have fouled Wright. The resultant free-kick found an MK head in our box, Roche made a fine save and an onrushing forward punched the ball into the net. Confusion reigned for some time before the referee finally made himself understood and Roche restarted play with a free-kick. Seconds later Mr Joslin blew his whistle and we had our first victory over MK Dons. Peter Leven surprisingly led the player celebrations in front of the cheering travelling fans. It was all very satisfying.

Felix pulls the reds back level at Stadium MK

Off the pitch, Georges Santos was released without ever appearing on the fans' radar, Jamie Jackson went to Matlock on loan for a month for experience purposes whilst we extended Felix Bastians' loan for a further month-good news indeed. Man-of-the-month for November had a few bit-part contributions from Bastians, Fletcher and Gray, but there could be only one winner: Jack Lester for his goals galore performances (but ignoring his penalty miss). This was marred by his injury at Milton Keynes, but it seems there was no significant damage and he should return soon-a good job too.