CHESTERFIELD FAN'S VIEW: we can't afford to lose at Grimsby now

An away draw, a home win and then a result against Port Vale would have seen us start to put pressure on others. Instead it’s Barnet under Martin Allen who

have also started winning. If Grimsby hadn’t been on such a poor run, we could have been dead and buried now.

I’m sorry, but when we were 1-1 against ten-man Port Vale, it should have yielded at least a point. Our team didn’t seem to have the belief to stick the ball in the box or even have a shot in the second half.

Stats don’t lie and the fact is that, at Vale Park, both teams had an equal number of chances over 90 minutes. This league is bad, really bad and we lost due to the fact that Tom Pope was back for them and they always had the out-ball of simply booting it up to him to relieve the pressure. This was proved with their winning goal, which was simply a big kick from the goalkeeper, flicked on by the big forward to Ben Whitfield, who finished well.

The difference between the Notts County game and the Vale debacle was simple. Against Notts, Chesterfield pressed the opposition, forcing their backline into mistakes and so their long-ball game unravelled. On Good Friday, our forward-line stood off their backline, while the opposition stopped our side getting the passing game going by simply pressuring us. It’s a division where attackers mark defenders and teams grind out results by playing hard-working football that isn’t pretty to watch.

Our side need to put in 100 per cent effort in every game and can’t just stand around waiting for a pass. Many fans thought we went off the boil after scoring and it’s hard to disagree with them.

On that note, I think most people will say well done to John Coleman and his Accrington Stanley side who look like they are going to win the title. They simply have a compact, hard-working side with one excellent winger in Jordan Clark and a couple of decent strikers in Billy Kee and Kayden Jackson. They keep it simple and it’s paying dividends.

Chesterfield have the worst away record in the division and it’s those crucial fixtures where the future is going to be decided. In my book, two away wins are needed and it’s hard to see where they are going to come from. We simply cannot afford to lose at Grimsby now.