It was one of those strange days between Christmas and New Year, we weren’t sure what day it really was or indeed what time kick off was. It was a good half an hour before our scheduled meet up time and I was already parked up outside Tesco Pete’s mansion. Luckily, he was as bored as the rest of us and had already done his hair and was ready to go. Football is a real salvation at this time of the year.
With just 65 miles ahead of us, we were parked up outside the ground far too early. As the away ticket office closed, we were directed by a kind programme seller to the club shop for matchday sales. They in turn kindly directed us to a small window outside for our tickets from where we were very politely redirected to the main reception to queue once again. “Your tickets will be at the away ticket office” said the smartly dressed bloke wearing a blazer and important looking lanyard. After explaining our journey to date, he kindly agreed to look in his Tupperware boxes, each full of tickets awaiting collection. “They’re not in strict alphabetical order,” he moaned, looking quite disappointed to eventually find ours. Still, it killed half an hour of spare time.
Chesterfield’s stadium was opened in 2010 with an all-seater capacity of around 10,500. The ground is made up of four separate stands all in the same style. The two stands alongside the pitch include hospitality areas with a curved roof running the length of the pitch. The stands behind the goals are allocated to home fans at one end and away fans at the other. There’s a decent sized scoreboard alongside the away end, with all modern technology that shows the score, sponsor’s names for free-kicks, corners and occasionally goals too.
At half time the Shaymen led by a single goal, scored in the 18th minute by Warburton at the far end of the ground. The travelling supporters had already had the ground rocking way before kick-off with a drum so loud it rattled your heartbeat every time it was struck, when that goal when in it was electric. League leaders Chesterfield looked very ordinary throughout the half as the Shaymen played with passion and skill. “What did you think to the first half?’ said one near by travelling Shayman to another at the break. ‘Breathless,’ was the single word response, it was that good.
The second half was equally exciting, Chesterfield had more possession, but the Shaymen’s defence looked solid. There were few opportunities for a second goal as we watched the scoreboard edge slowly towards the end of the game. A strange penalty award woke up the near capacity home support, and they celebrated like it was a goal when the referee pointed to the spot. Shortly afterwards, his revised decision fired up the away end once again as a goal kick was given instead.
Chesterfield equalised with around five minutes of normal time remaining, if felt like it had been coming since the penalty decision. The referee added on his customary lengthy injury time of nine minutes, that’s now 19 minutes of additional time he’s added in the second half of the last two games he’s refereed for us, with Notts County being the other one. Chesterfield thought they had time for a winner, but the Shaymen pushed forwards again, earned a few corners and free kicks before the full-time whistle finally blew.
Driving back and we were delighted. It’s a great point on the road against a team that has really performed well at home. It was a great atmosphere, a good crowd, and a real indicator that the team are capable of taking on anyone in this league. Who knows what 2022 will bring?
Next up and it’s another big crowd as we head to Grimsby for some decent fish and chips and perhaps three points.
Goals on the road 17, miles 5044, c’mon Shaymen!
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