Chesterfield FC's starting eleven is just not good enough, says our fans columnist

I genuinely believed that last week against Dagenham the team had turned a corner, that they had a pattern of play, could limit the opposition and that draws would soon turn into wins. It’s fair to say I was wrong.

I’ve never seen the wheels fall off a team so badly as on Saturday, the weird thing was we could easily have been two goals up before Gateshead scored their first. From where we were in the West Stand it was clear in the first minute that we should have had a penalty as a Gateshead defender handled the ball from a cross controlled and cleared it, however the referee was obviously not in a position to see it.

Plus if any of our team had the confidence to shoot early in the game it looked like goals were going to come.

Once Gateshead had scored their second, due to good finishing and Keystone Kops style defending from Chesterfield it was like watching an exhibition match, sadly it was our visitors who passed the ball around in a simple but effective fashion, leaving the Blues to chase shadows.

This is Martin Allen’s team, the majority of the starting 11 are his signings and they just aren’t good enough. We’ve actually managed to construct a worse side than last season.

I’m led to believe that Chesterfield have one of the top budgets in this division, which is roughly double the amount of money available to the Gateshead boss. But if that’s so why has Martin Allen signed players who are not as fit as their opponents? For example, both of our new look midfield duo of Curtis Weston and Jonathan Smith were just not quick enough to deal with simple runs from the Gateshead midfield. Weston looked exhausted in the first half and Smith looked disinclined to do any tracking back. If you dare to watch the highlights you’ll see players making no attempt to get back and mark the opposition when they scored.

The question asked by many, as the match trundled on was, what exactly is Chesterfield’s style of play?

How are they attempting to move the ball from one end of the pitch to the other? And do the players know what they are being asked to do? Are we a long ball team missing out the mid field and simply belting it to Tom Denton? Or are we trying to pass it in a traditional 442 style?

Martin Allen says he won’t resign, but at this rate we are looking at three relegations on the trot.