Reactive Rovers Sent in to Reverse by Spireites
Chesterfield 5-2 Doncaster Rovers
His side are 3-1 behind in a local derby with less than an hour played.
The game is not drifting away from Doncaster, it’s galloping towards the sunset.
Hesitancy proved the visitors undoing with the first concession as keeper Ted Sharman-Lowe came out, retreated and slipped. Bim Pepple then doubled the advantage and the task at hand.
Rovers have not won a league game this season in which they’ve conceded the first goal.
Despite Luke Molyneux’s strike just before half time which had got them back in the game, it is the manager’s turn to throw caution to the wind, after Chesterfield’s third via the pint-sized Olakigbe.
Reminiscent of the Guinness surfing advert of yesteryear; “He waits...tick followed tock followed tick...”
There is no sense of animation, no panic, no troops being readied for action. Where are the calls for reinforcements or the change in approach? Where are the squad players which McCann hailed?
Nothing.
Chesterfield – and Pepple - score again.
The game has well and truly vanished as Rovers inexplicably find themselves 4-1 down.
No one individual to blame. Damage limitation suddenly becomes a primary objection after this collective failing.
Billy Sharp is Chesterfield’s kryptonite. He has 5 goals in 8 games against them and yet even his introduction seventeen minutes after the crucial third goal - as part of a quintet of substitutes - was too little, too late.
Shipping eight goals to Paul Cook’s this season will sting for now, but McCann’s men must move on and quickly. They can no longer dip their toes in the water if they are to achieve promotion.
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