Braintree Town Vs Chesterfield FA Cup First round 09-11-14
A great FA Cup occasion at Cressing road saw a very good
League One Chesterfield side prove too difficult for the Iron to overcome in order
to progress to the second round proper. Six goals was the difference between
the two sides who sat 52 positions apart in the football tier at the start of
the game, but Iron created some good chances in the game. Though well beaten on
the day, Iron showed glimpses of promise in their performance in some areas against
what they knew would be a massive test at Cressing road on Remembrance Sunday.
Iron had the early chance with Sean Marks played through by
James Mulley in the centre of the pitch. Mulley beat the Chesterfield back line
with a single ball, which Marks controlled well and fired hard and low towards
the bottom right hand corner. Goalkeeper Tommy Lee had to be on top form to
palm the ball behind five minutes in.
From the early chance, Chesterfield responded with a ten
minute spell of pressure, the majority of play taking place deep inside the
Iron half. Braintree coped well, looking solid defensively and dealing with any
test that the Spirites gave in the initial quarter of an hour. However,
following a free kick into the visitor’s box where a foul was given on Sean
Marks against Tommy Lee, Chesterfield created the necessary chance to open the
scoring. Beaten down the right hand side, Iron allowed Eoin Doyle space in the
centre of the goal to reach a pass played along the six yard line from Clucas. The
ball was squeezed beyond the outstretched Hamann, which Doyle tapped in
unchallenged and with ease to put Braintree a goal behind 20 minutes in.
The breakthrough signalled the end of Braintree’s good
defensive performance, and the floodgates were to open in this match, with
Chesterfield contining to threaten through Doyle who narrowly missed a pacey
ball in from Morsy, which would have been certain to double the lead. The
second did come just ten minutes after the first with a great strike from Jay
O’Shea just outside the Iron box. Turning with his right, O’Shea turned in a
curling effort, which found the top corner giving Hamann no chance and the Iron
a mountain to climb within half an hour if they were to progress to the 2nd
round.
Just before half time, Akinola turned Ian Evatt, and looked to be through on goal. Having been beaten by Akinola’s acceleration, Evatt went to ground, pulling down Akinola in the process and escaped with a yellow due to a covering defender being available on the far side. The free kick in was nodded down by Sowunmi to Alan Massey, whose shot was scooped up by Lee. Straight down the other end, some sloppy defending allowed Sam Clucas to scuff a shot in from close range, being on his own again inside the 6 yard box. Similar to the first, simple football played around the Iron defence allowed a ball across, which this time Hamann got to but could not prevent, and Clucas was the man presented with the opportunity to tap in unchallenged.
Devonshire made a double substitution at the break, with
Marks and Brundle making way for Cox and Strutton. Strutton had an immediate
impact, catching a great shot with his right which was palmed away by Tommy
Lee. The goalkeeper was the centre of controversy moments later, when outside
the box he charged down Jordan Cox who appeared to be through on goal. As Cox
went to ground, the referee immediately blew the whistle for a free kick just
outside the area, but strangely no word was said to the goalkeeper, nor a card
shown for the challenge.
Down the other end, and against the run of play since the
break, a Gary Roberts solo effort from outside the area extended the lead to
four in the 53rd minute. Tandayi Darikwa ran at the Iron defence,
and through a challenge found a looping ball to Roberts. Roberts looked up and
nestled the ball into the top left hand corner with a great attempt from
outside the area, showing the quality that the League One club has. The
Spirites were to have the ball in the back of the net yet again when Jay O’Shea
thumped a Gary Roberts through ball past Nick Hamann, but O’Shea was ruled
offside and it remained 4-0 with half an hour to play.
The Iron never gave up, with Jordan Cox looking lively up
front with Strutton, coming back to receive the ball when possible. Cox did
just that, playing the ball out to the right hand side and getting himself into
a good position looking for the return. Iron played the ball across the box
searching for the opening, and it was eventually Akinola on the other side that
found the space required to pull the trigger; a shot fired at Tommy Lee that
was palmed away. Cox met the return with his head, which flew over the bar and
behind for a goal kick.
On the counter, Chesterfield punished Braintree yet again in
the crulest of ways with fifteen minutes remaining when Remi Clerima turned in
an own goal when trying to meet a cross in from the left. Gary Roberts tore
down the left hand side and provided the cross, but as Remy slid to turn the
ball behind, he instead deflected it past the ‘keeper Hamann to further extend
the lead.
Iron fans held their breath as Akinola cut in to shoot down
the left had side, only to be denied by the head of the Chesterfield man on the
line. But the day was finished with a final goal from the league side, when
Eoin Doyle bagged another just before full time, slotting past Hamann with
ease. Moments before the full time whistle, Doyle was put through on the right,
and took his chance well, side footing into the bottom corner to wrap up the
day which saw Chesterfield ease past Braintree with six goals and no reply.
Iron boss Alan Devonshire showed his discontent on the
result, which did see his side match up against a far superior league side. In
terms of positioning, the distance between the two is the same as that of
Chesterfield and Manchester City at the start of the game. However, Devonshire
pulled no punches following the game stating that he was “bitterly disappointed”
with his side.
“We did alright for five minutes, started well and then
after that we were poor. I’m bitterly disappointed, I feel that the players
have let the club down. They are better than that, you know that, you see them
week in week out and I’m trying to put my finger on it… I don’t know. I am
bitterly disappointed with that performance, and all we can do is move on.”
“We didn’t go with runners and sloppy mistakes, we couldn’t
clear the ball. How many times did we scuff it ten yards to them? It’s just
poor. I don’t know what they want. It’s the first round of the FA Cup, the TV
cameras are here, have a go lads and show them how good you are. I’ve got to
apologise to the fans because I feel they were brilliant today and we were
poor.”
“I said to them in there that they were playing against League
One players, but we made them look like Championship or Premier League players today.
We need to roll our sleeves up now because we have a game against Dover on
Tuesday who had a great win yesterday.”
“At the end of the day we have had enough chances to score.
Charlie (Strutton) had a chance and Jordan (Cox) had a chance that should have
been in the back of the net like it was at the other end. There finishing was
good but at the end of the day we also gifted them some goals as well.
Especially the third one which I just felt at half time had killed the game, it
was so sloppy. We’ve got to learn quickly.”
“I don’t know if the confidence is low, but we can’t feel
sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to roll our sleeves up and make sure we get
another thirty points in this league to make sure that we stay in it. There are
a few people coming back now, so I will have a choice to make. I could probably
drop them all after today, but there will be a few changes after today because
that was poor.”
Braintree Town: Hamann, Peters, Habergham, Sowunmi
(Clerima), Massey, Isaac, Davis, Mulley, Brundle (Strutton), Marks (Cox),
Akinola
Unused subs: Sparkes, Paine, Walker, Pentney
Chesterfield: Lee, Darikwa, Evatt, Ryan, Morsy, Clucas, Jones (Humphreys), O’Shea (Gardner), Raglan, Roberts (Boco), Doyle
Subs: Wright, Ariyibi, Banks
Referee: Brendan Malone
Assistants: Ian Fissenden and Chris O’Donnell
Fourth Official: Darren Blunden
Attendance: 1206
Match Report by Chris Pargin
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