From Saltergate to....

55 years on from my first football match at Chesterfield, to what, today, might be my last, since in 3 weeks time we are flitting across to the other, colder side of Hadrian's Wall and it's not very likely that I'll be coming back just to watch the Spireites. In fact, I've been watching Sheffield United instead recently but that's another story and besides, that doesn't wipe out all the memories, going back to that first game, a 2-2 draw with Workington in October 1963.

The 1960s were a 4th Division era, the 1970s a 3rd Division one, with the time since then spent alternating between the two. This long spell of respectable mediocrity has been interrupted by 2 significant events; the Anglo-Scottish Cup win in 1981 and the out-of-character FA Cup run to a semi-final replay in 1997.

As the Anglo-Scottish win slips further into the distance, some folk are beginning to remember it (or in most cases, hear about it) as Town beating Rangers in the Final, but the trophy was actually decided after an all-English North/East Midlands clash against Notts County, won with a last minute goal at Meadow Lane. The Rangers game was a quarter-final, in which the Scottish giants were given such a hammering that the embarrassment to the game North of the border led to the competition being axed. This was probably the lowest point in Rangers' history till the club was liquidated and then reborn in the 4th tier a few years ago.

That was a very fine Chesterfield side, assembled so expensively that the team was quickly sold in a buyers' market over the next couple of years. The club was in danger of going out of business by 1983 as well as being back in the 4th division.

The 1997 Cup run came from nowhere, and was built on some favourable draws and manager John Duncan's strategy of hard work, extreme fitness and solid defending. That Town were robbed by a goal being wrongly disallowed against Middlesbrough at Old Trafford is known throughout the land.

The move from Saltergate to a new ground in 2010 was billed as the beginning of a New Era. While there is no doubt that the new stadium is miles better in terms of comfort, view and atmosphere, and crowds have doubled even with the team on a downward spiral, one unfortunate consequence is that many of the supporters who had stayed away from the old place were exactly the type of fans that we were all better off without, which was to lead, directly, to my not going anymore even before I moved house and went to live in Sheffield.

Another 1980/1 style spending spree in the middle of this decade has been followed, again, by a financial crisis, the details of which are too painful for any Town fan to need to read about yet again. The best players have been sold and replaced with a mixture of old pros well past their best and some young lads who have tried hard but are not of League standard. 2 successive relegations have dumped Chesterfield FC out of the League altogether after 97 years of membership since being one of the founders, and founder members, of the Third Division North in 1921.

Has the decline, or rather the headlong dive into humiliation, finally been arrested? Unfortunately not. 11 points from 11 games in the Vanarama National League, including a run of 8 matches without a win, in which a mere 3 goals have been scored, left the team in 16th place before the visit of Gateshead today. Already, a season which began with hopes of a quick return to the EFL have turned into one marked by the dread of a third successive demotion.

Chuffing hell.

Now, my intention was to go on to report on this afternoon's match, but there are no words which could adequately describe how inept Chesterfield's performance was. If this really was the last time I ever watch them play then I finished on what was the worst display I have ever seen in all those years, not just by Town but by any professional side. Plus, traffic snarl-ups in Sheffield before the game meant that I didn't get to see my mates before kick off either.

The result, Chesterfield 0 Gateshead 3, did not flatter Gateshead, who were the better side by a mile. To be fair, though, find any 11 adults capable of standing up and they would probably have performed better that Chesterfield did this afternoon.

Now, some pictures:

Where does the club go from here? I really don't know. Town were in the Third Division play offs as recently as 2015 and now, 4 seasons later, are rubbish even by National League standards. That's a hell of a downward trajectory, and on the evidence of this afternoon one that doesn't look like stopping before the team endures yet another relegation. 

I wasn't particularly looking forward to watching Annan Athletic play in the Scottish 4th tier but I can't believe that Annan's part timers could possibly be as bad as Chesterfield were today, so, comparatively, it should be a pleasure. Since I don't particularly like tragic horror stories it's just as well I'll not be around to see my home town team hurtling towards joining in with the village teams on their little grounds that make up the regional second tier of the non-league system. Unless they pull their socks up they will probably be just as hopeless at that level too. 

I don't know what to say. Honestly. I really don't.