December - A Month of Odd Results and a New Skipper

By John Taylor

With the first Saturday of the month being the familiar Christmas shopping day for the players owing to our non-involvement in the FA Cup, we started December's action on the Wednesday with the visit of in-form Rotherham to Saltergate. They included the none-too-popular Mark Hudson in their side and had Peter Holmes on the bench. Our only change from the MK victory was Fletcher for the injured Lester. The least said about the match, the better as we were poor and a yellow-clad Rotherham won 2-0 with ease. Derek Holmes slotted in early on after Roche parried a deflected shot. Hudson wrapped it up on 55 with a shot after ponderous defending allowed him in. Thereafter we never looked like troubling the Millers who have now won twice at Saltergate in the last 28 years-they're getting greedy.

Next on the list was Bradford City at the Rec' in driving rain and wind. Picken replaced Fletcher for Town and for once we made something of a dead ball situation with Ward's early corner being converted in true goal-poacher style by Adam Rooney. After that we played pretty well but a combination of poor finishing and decent defending denied us. The Bantams always looked threatening on the break, but lacked composure when it mattered. After the interval, City came close with an effort off the bar and on 60 minutes the lively Ward set up Lowry for a glorious opportunity, but the youngster side-footed it into Cross Street.  Robertson fluffed another opportunity a few minutes later and we then paid the price with 13 minutes remaining as former Blade Nix scored with a fine shot from just outside the box. This was beginning to look familiar. Ricketts denied Ward with a good stop and City also pressed for a winner, but both sides had to settle for a point. It was a lot better than the Rotherham match but still deeply disappointing.

1up v Bradford

Next up was the eagerly anticipated trip to the Interlink Express Stadium, sponsored home of the famous Accrington Stanley, not founder members of the league, as many seem to think. The place is typical old-fashioned football territory, but the ground has a decided non-league feel to it and the sub-1500 crowd did little to dispel that perception. Town, minus the suspended Janos Kovacs started the brighter and played much better football than the hosts with Bastians looking particularly sharp. We took the lead in the 18^th minute with a goal the would be contender for goal of the season were it not for the fact that the scorer, Jamie Ward, was committing the sin of wearing gloves-and with a short-sleeved shirt! There is no place for this behaviour at places like Accrington and Chesterfield. Anyway, Bastians' sweeping crossfield pass found Ward about 25 yards out. He spotted home keeper, Dunbavin off his line and executed a magnificent chip over the stranded custodian-a goal of pure class. That was as good as it got as the hard-working hosts left us without space to create and caused us some scares at the back. The biggest frustration was that our corners were all wasted with Ward guilty of several dismal deliveries.  So half time came and went and there was no further addition to the score.

The second period saw Stanley working hard and Town looking strangely lethargic with the exception of the ever-eager Niven and the enthusiastic Lowry. The game degenerated and became very scrappy on the uneven surface. Typical of the way the game went was an incident where Stanley burst clear down the left and Aaron Downes made a magnificent Albert Holmes-like tackle, looked up and played a 10-yard pass straight to a Stanley player. Worse was to come on 73 minutes when the Aussie gave away another penalty with a needless foul on the splendidly named Roscoe D'Sane. Substitute Proctor stepped up and beat Roche with ease. The game threatened to spill over then into unpleasantness and both Roberts and Fletcher saw yellow. A spate of substitutions then saw the Chief enter the fray for the last few minutes, but to no avail as he was on hand only to see D'Sane head Stanley's winner in the last minute from a right wing corner. It was no more than they deserved as they worked harder than us on the day. We played like the place was beneath us and we didn't need to try. Hopefully some lessons will be learned from this encounter.

By way of light relief, Mansfield were our pre-Christmas visitors to Saltergate, languishing in a relegation spot and boasting the only non-win on the road record in our division. As it turned out they never really looked like reversing that trend as we ran out 2-0 winners to end our miserable non-winning home run stretching back over 3 months. The team saw Downes dropped after his howler at Accrington for the returning Kovacs, Lester replaced Fletcher and Winter replaced the suspended Niven. We looked the more purposeful outfit before the break, though without reward as the half finished goalless.  Felix Bastians was injured and was replaced by Fletcher at half time, which was a stroke of good fortune as the big man caused the Stags some considerable difficulties in the second half and the whole team functioned better as a unit.

Within 15 minutes of the resumption we were 2 up as first Lester then Ward beat Muggleton, who received, as expected, a warm welcome from the Kop on his return to Town. After several near misses on Muggleton's goal, the balance of the game tilted in favour of the visitors as Kevin Gray was dismissed after a foul on Brown, whose theatrical mock agony went a considerable way to persuading Mr Hall to brandish a straight red. It was a very harsh decision and cost the club captain an automatic 3-match ban. Downes immediately came on for Lester to bolster the defence and this move kept the Stags quiet until the final whistle, which was greeted by much relief after the winless 3 months at home.

Boxing Day saw another trip into Lancashire with Gigg Lane the venue this time, a ground where we'd not tasted league success since 1946. We were about to rectify that situation. Downes returned to the side for the suspended Gray, whilst Niven came back after suspension to replace the injured Bastians. Surprisingly, the captain's armband went to Peter Leven and he rewarded us with a leader's display in a game that never rose above ordinary. Early bookings for Bury's Scott and Jamie Lowry were followed by Jamie Ward going off with hamstring problems again after half an hour. Steve Fletcher entered the fray in replacement. Barry Roche then pulled off a fine save from a free kick and just when it looked like a goalless half, a decent Town move saw Leven fouled just inside the box. The Scot took the penalty himself and beat former Monkeyhanger Jim Provett with ease in front of the 767 Town following.

New Skipper Peter Leven

The second half began with marginally more football than the first but on 57 minutes the hosts were reduced to 10 men as skipper Scott saw red after another foul on Winter. He didn't even wait for the card as he knew the result before the ref had chance to reach for his pocket. This effectively ended Bury's challenge and they rarely threatened Roche's goal. Former Spireite Glynn Hurst was hardly noticeable and Kovacs and Downes contained the home team's sporadic attacks with some comfort. Lester and Lowry, after great run, almost extended our lead and Leven appeared to have done so right at the death when he latched onto a fine Winter pass and chipped Provett only to see the ball float inches wide. Still, we won a league match at Bury-something I thought I'd never see-it was very satisfying and a very professional, industrious performance in stark contrast to the Accrington display.

The month and year's last encounter saw us at Underhill, looking to avenge our home defeat to Barnet in September. Strangely for late December, the game started in bright sunshine, making viewing difficult. Rooney came into the side for the injured Picken whilst Fletcher kept his place after Ward's injury with the former Torquay man making the bench. The Town fans were accommodated in the top half of the side terrace, which was a first for us and this made the famous Underhill slope look even more pronounced than from our previous locations at the bottom or on the end. Early exchanges were scrappy with Roche tested once, saving a Hatch header. We took the lead on 21 minutes with an incisive move as Lester's instinctive pass from Fletcher's flicked header saw Adam Rooney net with assurance and once again show his striking prowess. On the half hour, Lester was booked for a perceived dive, earning him a suspension against his former employers, Grimsby Town. The half closed with the home side attacking in a sustained fashion for once but Roche foiled the only serious effort from Puncheon.

Rooney on the mark at Underhill

The second half saw the sun go down, temperatures drop and several Barnet wimps bringing out the gloves. Town players remained tough and manly. Early pressure was from the home side, but Downes and Kovacs remained resolute, whilst we looked dangerous on the counter. The home side's offside trap worked wonders as it did at Saltergate and this time Lester twice had the ball in the net but was hauled back by the linesman's flag. In my opinion, he got only one of those right. After the second on 67 minutes, Lester was taken off and Ward came off the bench. Barnet continued to press, but without any conviction in their finishing with most efforts skidding tamely wide of the mark. With 11 minutes left, we wrapped up the points as Harrison dropped Leven's corner under pressure from Fletcher and Kovacs reacted like a striker to crash the ball home off the bar. The Hungarian's celebration was slightly less exuberant than that at Lincoln the previous month. Barnet looked deflated after this and we ran out winners with a degree of comfort in the end and a third straight clean sheet.

In conclusion, the month ended well with 3 wins and no goals conceded after 3 very disappointing games at the start of the month. Who would have thought we'd win at Bury and lose to Rotherham? Not me for certain, nor did I imagine we'd win 8 away games before the turn of the year. The year's end saw us sitting in 5^th place, which is satisfactory, but you can't help thinking that we could have been higher. Still, there's a long way to go and we're handily placed. We'll doubtless see some activity in the nonsense that is the January transfer window, even if it's only of the loan sort as we seek to bounce back to league one.

Off the pitch, there was little to report apart from a pre-Christmas charity player auction at a fashion evening where Jamie Ward looked a tad embarrassed. On a more serious note, Lee Richardson was absent from the festive games as his wife was in danger of losing her life with complications during pregnancy. Reports indicate she's now fine, but it is another reminder to put the game into perspective. The Taylor award for man-of-the month has a few candidates with decent contributions from Rooney, Lester and Leven, but the Hungarian brick-built outhouse, Janos Kovacs gets the nod with his solid performances at the back, his goal against Barnet and his obvious delight with it, but particularly his towering display against Mansfield.