Paul Cook kept the same starting eleven for the third match running at Spotlands against Rochdale who welcomed back their former manager Keith Hill, who took charge of his first match at home since returning to the club. I expected a big crowd and an electric atmosphere, I'm afraid I got neither. With a crowd of just over 2,700 and the only atmosphere was coming from the away end.
Straightaway the visitors got into their stride, O'Shea cut inside from the left and hit a lovely curling effort against the bar. Marc Richards had a shot saved, after O'Shea got a cross in. Moments later Richards came close again, beating his marker, but the keeper managed to smother his effort.
Rochdale started to get into the game, Tutte saw his attempt take a deflection and go just wide. Whittaker hit a shot just wide. Grimes managed to get past Hird before seeing his low drive saved by Lee.
H.T. 0-0.
Darikwa didn't last long in the 2nd half , he hobbled off injured and was replaced by Marc Randall, it didn't take him long to get involved as he found Richards, he hit a lovely back heel shot into the net. But the linesman had his flag up, so it was ruled offside.
Togwell put in a great tackle to win the ball, which Whittaker picked up, he ran at their defence before finding O'Shea in space, he took his chance well, this time there was no offside flag, the Spireites had taken the lead.
11 minutes later the scores were level, when Grant hit a lovely left footed shot into the top corner, giving Lee no chance.
The Rochdale hero then turned villain an awful late tackle on Togwell saw the young winger sent off.
Richards was fouled in the Rochdale penalty area, which looked like a stonewall penalty, the ref waved played on, Chesterfield were caught on the break and Donnelly hit a goal bound shot, but a brilliant reflex save from Lee denied him.
F.T 1-1.
Chesterfield again created enough chances to win the game, in the end they had to settle for a point. Trotman was my Man of The Match he was magnificent in the heart of the defence against his former team.
Cook talking to the official website said: 'Their goal - it's a great finish by Bobby Grant by the way with his left foot - comes from our free-kick and we give the ball away and it ends up in our net. No matter what you work on with the lads and talk about, for some reason they get caught up in the heat of the game. It's hard, but you must be cold and calculated in what you do. If you draw today 1-1, there's no problem because today we have played well, we had some good performances and scored a fantastic goal.'
It's got to be only a matter of time before goals start flowing and the wins start coming, they are playing well and creating plenty of chances. They need to start stringing some wins together soon because they are now 6 points away from a play-off place. Hopefully they can get back to their winning ways when they play hosts to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday, then it's the mouthwatering trip to The New York Stadium to take on Rotherham.
