By Lauren Walton
August 15 2002

Swindon Town were the visitors for Chesterfield's first home game of the season however a very poor performance from the spireites saw them loose to a very average Swindon side 4-2. An embarrassingly small number of fans for Chesterfield saw them notch up their second defeat! For those of you who didn't bother going - maybe you were the lucky ones! The spireites started quite like the pre-season game against Matlock and from the start I knew it was going to be a tough battle against a very average Swindon side!

The defence was sloppy and at times we didn't even have one and that is no exaggeration! Rushbury needs to pull his finger out soon or we might aswell hang the towel up now.

A little under 15 minutes had passed when Swindon went 1-0 up, well I knew it was bound to come they dominated the first 10 minutes and put Muggleton under immense pressure. I thought that alot of the blame should have been put on Carl's shoulders, well the first goal anyway but let's not forget the defence! You just wouldn't be able to believe how bad it was, it was almost non existent half the time! Carl went to clear it this was his first error, managed to get away with it but since the defence was shocking he went back again missed it and somehow the ball ended up in the back of the net!

The Kop was stunned and silenced until blasts of 'You only sing when your winning' started being sung by the home fans. Chesterfield did manage to start playing a little better after the first goal went in for Swindon but only up until they broke away down the middle and scored again.

It was depressing football all night and I don't know what Rushbury's tactics are because he hasn't got a clue. Who ever's idea was it to play long ball up field when Swindons back men were nearly twice the size of Chesterfield's players needs shooting! The only way we're going to win teams like that is if we play proper football and get it on the deck. It doesn't take a genius to work that out but in Rushbury's case it does!

Chesterfield again sat back and allowed for yet another stupid goal to be scored by Swindon and this time it was taking the michael!

Chants of 'Rushbury Out' echoed round the ground and not before time either! The man's a joke and even when Duncan was incharge we wasn't this bad. At least we had a solid defence even if the strike force was alot to be desired, I say bring back Johny Duncan!

So 2-0 to Swindon and Chesterfield were made to look like a Sunday League side with no expectations and NO defence! Everything was just so predictable and then again Chesterfield had a few chances, one which was a sitter which we missed which was very unfortunate.

Then like the previous two goals, Danny Invincible managed to get the ball up field and pass for some lucky so-and-so to bang it home to make it 3-0 to the visitors!

With nothing going the way of the spireites half-time drew upon us with the score-line Swindon 3 Chesterfield 0! The Chesterfield team managed 'boos' from the crowd, which was quite leanient!

Early into the second half Chesterfield were awarded a penalty so Glyn Hurst stepped up to take it and scored so now the score line was Swindon 3 Chesterfield 1. Obviously when you go goals down you fight to level it well Chesterfield never shown any signs of this and that was the most embarrassing thing about it!

Chesterfield struggled to keep Danny Invincible under control and he caused havoc right from the very start and it was no surprise that he actually got 2 of Swindon’s goals! Maybe Invincible was too much of a task for Chesterfield but we let Swindon get through and get the goals which was totally humiliating because Swindon are not as good as the team we have got but we made it easy for them!

After Chesterfield scored at least one from a penalty 2 minutes later Swindon broke away again through no defence and well and truly finished the match off when the score line stood at Swindon 4 Chesterfield 1.

Chesterfield got a second goal on the 74th minute but it was a case of too little too late for Chesterfield and we just couldn’t turn it around! We dominated for quite a while but chances were created few and far between.

It’s going to be a tough challenge for Chesterfield to stop up if these are the sorts of performances we will be seeing from our team this season. The longer Dave Rushbury stops in the job the harder it will be to stop in the second division!!

On Saturday we take on Port Vale at home, let’s see if the spireites can pick up those ever so important first points to get them off of the foot of the table!