Chesterfield 2 Walsall 2
League 2
Saturday 5 October 2024
spire spiel
The context
Chesterfield were League members again after four years’ absence. They had provided good value for money on previous trips, not least during this ground’s first season when we attended a particularly boisterous game against Port Vale. Their old home at Saltergate also held happy memories for us.
The history
railway residence
Everybody knows about Chesterfield’s crooked spire. Few other places – Pisa being one notable exception – can ever have celebrated shoddy workmanship quite so enthusiastically. But Victorian industrial expansion defined this area more. New mines brought unexpected prosperity, encouraging railway magnate George Stephenson to live for ten years at nearby Tapton House while he supervised work on the North Midland line between Derby and Sheffield.
disappeared
Stephenson invested heavily in the extraction of local coal and ironstone deposits. That was hardly surprising, given that his railway tunnel excavations had been responsible for discovering them. Clay Cross village rapidly disappeared beneath mineshafts, collieries, coke oven works, brickworks, limeworks, pipeworks, iron furnaces and a foundry. George Stephenson & Co would remain Chesterfield’s largest employer for the next hundred years.
gloriously chaotic
The town was important enough to have three main lines. Stephenson built its first station, Chesterfield Midland; Chesterfield Central stood beside Brewery Street, on the Grand Central Line between Manchester and London Marylebone, while Chesterfield Market Place provided services to Lincoln via Mansfield. Everything converged at Horns Bridge, where tracks criss-crossed one another – together with several trunk roads – in a gloriously chaotic confusion of tunnels, bridges and embankments.
Central perk (Roger Joanes)
Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast lines travelled westward from Horns Bridge on a handsome viaduct. They then crossed the River Hipper – where M&S is now – before entering Market Place station. Booking office and platforms have long gone, but their position can be identified by the adjacent Portland Hotel. Central, meanwhile, succumbed to Beeching’s axe in 1963. Much of its trackbed ran through cuttings and was repurposed to build Rother Way and the A617.
the boys of 1912
The municipal Recreation Ground stood behind Saltergate. This long, straight thoroughfare ran west from Central and Midland stations. Early incarnations of Chesterfield FC played there from 1884 onwards; the third, Chesterfield Town, were League members between 1899 and 1909 but folded during World War I. Their successors – the present club – became Division Three (North) founders in 1921-22.
promoted again (Derbyshire Times)
Town (the old name is still used today) played Second Division football regularly between 1931 and 1951. But they have generally bounced around both lower leagues, occasionally achieving promotion but just as often getting relegated again. 1938 saw a 30,000 crowd at Saltergate for Tottenham’s visit. This was one of three Fifth Round appearances – the others being 1932-33 and 1949-50 – which for many years represented their furthest FA Cup progress.
1985 (Derbyshire Times)
All that changed in 1995 when former manager John Duncan agreed to come out of retirement. Duncan had already won the 1985 Fourth Division championship; he now got Chesterfield promoted once more. Tough centre-backs Sean Dyche and Mark Williams formed his team’s defensive foundation, with young centre-forward Kevin Davies beginning to show the talent that would earn him more than four hundred Premier League appearances. They were organised, resilient and hard to break down.
semi detached (Derbyshire Times)
Chesterfield almost reached the 1997 Cup Final. They beat Bury, Scarborough, Bristol City, Bolton, Nottingham Forest and Wrexham before leading Middlesbrough – who had Vladimir Kinder sent off – 2-0 in their Old Trafford semi. Then referee David Elleray missed Jon Howard’s shot crossing the line, and Boro battled back to score three times. Jamie Hewitt equalised late on but Duncan’s exhausted players were well beaten in a replay at Hillsborough.
mixed (Derbyshire Times)
These heroics arguably cost them promotion. Clubs with small squads have always made similar trade-offs, and events bore comparison with the Anglo-Scottish Cup win 37 years earlier. Then too, success proved a thoroughly mixed blessing; extra games badly overstretched Frank Barlow’s talented team, even though one tie would acquire such disproportionate resonance that middle-aged fans still talk about it today.
bizarre (Middlesbrough Evening Gazette)
Bizarre knockout tournaments proliferated during the Seventies. This one had originally been conceived as a “British Cup” for leading clubs not involved in European football, but by 1980-81 – its final season – random second and third tier English sides routinely competed against equally moribund Scottish entrants. With one exception. Quarter-final opponents Rangers were enduring relatively quiet times; for Chesterfield, however, they represented almost unimaginable glamour.
all quiet
The away leg finished 1-1 after Phil Walker put Chesterfield ahead direct from a corner. Thousands of Glaswegians travelled to Saltergate two weeks later, causing concern among club officials well aware of the havoc routinely wreaked at English grounds by Scottish supporters. Practically every pub closed, and business owners boarded up their premises; five hundred police were on duty, but torrential rain helped ensure that surprisingly little disorder took place.
dampened
A 3-0 home win also dampened Glaswegian spirits. Two early goals by midfielder Phil Bonnyman unsettled his former club, and Ernie Moss finished them off on the hour. Colin McAdam’s scuffed penalty miss capped a miserable evening. Chesterfield – wearing unfamiliar red – showed just why they were top of Division Three. “Humiliation” is how one visiting fan remembers it.
local hero
Moss was then half way through the second of three spells at Saltergate. He played for two title-winning Chesterfield sides during a Football League career that spanned twenty seasons, becoming their all-time record scorer with 192 goals in 539 appearances. Fifteen years’ non-League coaching and management followed his eventual retirement, aged 42.
bravery
Lower league clubs in those days used always to have talismanic local heroes. Ernie was one of the very best. Fans and team-mates remember genuine kind-heartedness that belied a towering physical presence; his goal against Rangers displayed typical bravery, anticipation and finishing as he slid determinedly through goalmouth mud between two floundering defenders.
The journey
Peak practice
No frills, handy for the hills/That’s the way you spell New Mills
I suspect John got the better of this deal. Preston to Derbyshire might not be far as crows fly, but driving it on sunny Saturdays is another matter. The High Peak’s wild beauty compensated somewhat; I could have imagined myself following in Sir Gawain’s footsteps were it not for battalions of beetle-like utility vehicles, dog-walking hearties and families with bikes thronging every layby.
The ground
tidy (Groundtastic)
Saltergate’s tidy main stand was built just before World War II. A substantial covered kop dated from 1951, while low corrugated-iron roofing along Compton Street cosily sheltered the top third of still more concrete terraces. Five figure crowds – Rangers attracted almost 14,000 – could easily be accommodated, and it looked substantial enough to convincingly portray the Clough-era Baseball Ground in Tom Hooper’s Damned United film.
unusable (Groundtastic)
The Popplewell and Taylor Reports each caused significant problems. Intrusive metal stairways meant that spectators could no longer watch from the Main Stand paddock; some seats had to be removed, and new ones subsequently added under Compton Street’s roof rendered its terracing unusable. When Chesterfield staged a rare League game against Manchester City in 1999 only 8,200 people were allowed to attend.
extensive (Groundtastic)
All this made relocation inevitable. Saltergate’s cramped location and extensive terraces couldn’t easily be redeveloped. Chesterfield looked into acquiring Wheeldon Mill greyhound stadium, but were thwarted by residents’ petitions. They eventually agreed to share the former Dema Glassworks site with various supermarkets and fast food chains, whose drab premises now dwarf their smart but resolutely functional new home.
glass routes
A few circles have still been squared here. Dema was a proud survivor of Chesterfield’s historic glassmaking industry, which dominated Whittington Moor for three hundred years. Stephenson’s original North Midland line runs behind Sainsbury’s; his former Tapton House home stands in public parkland just beyond its tracks. Mundane surroundings don’t always tell the full story.
Flesh and wine
backstreet boy
Chesterfield avoided many potential pitfalls when they built here. The new ground is much further out of town than Saltergate, but pubs and takeaways abound. There’s also – inevitably – a Tesco next door. We resisted any temptation to do our weekly shops, and instead visited the Miners Arms. This classic backstreet boozer resembled someone’s front parlour; most punters stood around, supping and sunbathing, in its equally bijou car-park.
pie curious
Kick-off time crept swiftly closer so concourse food it was. Many smaller grounds serve up decent pies nowadays; this offering (made by Jacksons of Clay Cross) proved more than acceptable, and mine could be eaten one-handed without gravy spillage or use of a fork. I didn’t see what John chose – burger, probably – but heard no complaints from him.
The game
numbers
Walsall were top of the league while Chesterfield had also started their season well. Home fans duly turned out in good numbers, but hesitant defending saw Jamille Matt set up Nathan Lowe to finish coolly. They levelled before half time; Walsall ‘keeper Tommy Simkin absent-mindedly picked up a David Okagbue back-pass, and Darren Oldaker touched in amidst scenes of confusion following Tom Naylor’s point-blank free kick.
content
Lowe was soon at it again. A calmly-placed goal rewarded delicate approach play from Liam Gordon; Charlie Lakin should then have settled matters, but instead chipped over the bar. That miss proved costly as Dilan Markanday underlined his good performance – and Walsall’s failure to clear their lines – by sweeping home another equaliser. Both sides seemed content with the draw.
Teams and goals
Chesterfield: Thompson, Gordon, Araujo (Berry-McNally 64), Dunkley, Mandeville (Colclough 63), Oldaker (Metcalfe 64), Taylor, Dobra, Banks, Markanday (Campbell 88), Grigg (Madden 64). Unused subs: Root, Grimes.
Walsall: Simkin, Allen, Williams, Okagbue, Gordon, Lakin (Comley 82), Stirk, Earing (Jellis 70), Barrett, Lowe, Myatt (Adomah 82). Unused subs: Daniel, Cleary, Hornby, Johnson.
Goals: Chesterfield: Oldaker 46, Markanday 67. Walsall: Lowe 33, 46.
Attendance: 9035.
