Five Conclusions: Chesterfield 1 Yeovil Town 1

Another valuable point pulled Yeovil Town four points clear of the National League relegation zone with a draw at a Chesterfield side with promotion ambitions.

An equaliser from on-loan Plymouth Argyle man Ryan Law was enough to cancel out a penalty scored by Paul MacCallum, one of a number of big name players in the opposition side.

Dave was in the away end in Derbyshire and here are his conclusions.

I wonder if the Chesterfield fans who cleared the snow wonder if it was worth it. Kudos to Chesterfield for getting the match on and those supporters who were out at 7am shovelling snow off the pitch at the Technique Stadium. The snow on the roads around the stadium, not to mention the heavy falls on the hills around Chesterfield were testament to exactly what a job they did to get it on. Not to take anything away from the performance the Yeovil team put in, but the performance of a team packed with the kind of quality in that squad was sadly lacking.

I fought Ryan Law, and Ryan Law won. Despite having seen him perform there in the win over Eastleigh, I was a little perplexed to see Ryan Law playing in such an advanced position. About ten minutes before he nodded the equaliser, I did remark to a fellow supporter about why we were playing a defender there when we had attacking players on the bench. But, I was wrong. Especially in the second half, I thought Law showed what a good technical player he is and coupled with his effort, carry on doing what you’re doing, Ryan.

We had to grind this one out. It wasn’t pretty to watch, but it definitely was not a Notts County-style shut out. It was back to the playing for one half routine with a the first half being largely playing ‘direct’ football up to our frontline which is not really designed for it. When we got the goal back it was undoubtedly against the run of play, but after that we showed real determination. Yes, we relied on Grant Smith on a couple of occasions but (as I have said before) we were more than a match for a very good Chesterfield side.

Four points from two play-off sides. We have often said this season that we play much better against the division’s higher ranked sides and the past four days has backed up that theory. After an impressive home win over an decent Eastleigh side (they won again this weekend, by the way), a point at a Chesterfield team which had picked up six points in their previous two matches, let’s not underestimate the significance of these results. Win your home games and pick up points away from home is what the experts say is the sign of a good side – and we’ve done exactly that.

We’ve dragged Dorking in to the mire now. This point and Dorking Wanderers’ defeat against Notts County in the late match pulls them below us with us holding a game in hand. We know the upcoming run of games where we play Dorking, Gateshead and Aldershot is going to be crucial, but the self-confessed “boring manager” that is Mark Cooper will be looking no further than Tuesday night at Barnet. Get a decent performance (and even better a decent result) and we can go in to next weekend at Halifax with a real spring in our step.