| Pre-match:- Another monster journey up north to the home of the Spirerites saw an exceptionally early meet at Upminster for 0800hrs. Deaders was on beer duty and was fashionably late as ever. Our underground friends had decided to carry out engineering work on most of the network so it was laboured journey across town to Kings X. St Pancras was awash with egg-chasers which didnt help the mood seeing as its the one London Station that lacks genuine stodge outlets and they had taken them over!! The 0930 was designated driver and off t'up north we headed. Interestingly for you train enthusiasts, we went via Nottingham to Alfreton where we were to complete our journey by a rail replacement bus. Alfreton has nothing. What was great about the place was that when a mini-bus turned up to ferry us up the road, it actually left behind one of the passengers who looked rather like Catweasel. Im not sure he laughed as much as us but never-mind. Attendees:- Usual performances from Dog, Zedders,Stew were aided by Saviola and Broons. They were met by Middle and a busy associate he met in Bakewell. Welcome aboard Caren. Of the normal away attendees, Count was injured and Winks didnt travel due to suspension. Crowd:- Just over 4000 witnessed a decent game. Chesterfield had a kids for a quid type day and got the perfect match to encourage a few of them to come back. Assume there was less than 150 Daggers there, tough to make any noise with those numbers, especially in an uncovered end. The Spirerites made impressive noise from there Kop in the 2nd half, definately drove their side on. Match:- Funny one. We were absolutely slaughtered for all but about 20 minutes of the game yet from that 20 mins we could have stolen a totally undeserved 3 points. Robbo was absolutely outstanding between the sticks for us, probably making around 6 or 7 excellent saves. On another day, we would easily have lost by 5 but we held on, nicked a goal that may have been offside and grabbed a valuable point. The lino may have granted us a goal yet was absolutely useless and the fact he was about 6 didnt help his cause. Also, Chesterfield used the multi-ball system to speed the game up. Note to Daggers faithful. When teams want to speed the game up by throwing a replacement ball onto the pitch and we have the original, get it onto the playing surface instead of mucking about with it. The ref will have to stop the game, it slows things down and the boys will definately thank you for it!! Post match:- Point safely in the bag, it was now a race to get south for the egg-chasing. We jumped into a pre-booked cab with a driver who claimed not all Thai lasses were a little bit funny having just been out there. Half hour of him trying to convince us ended when we were able to jump out in Nottingham, into a sea of Old Bill, Donnie Rovers fans and a load of angry Forrest. Ace. A quick stock up on grub and some art mags before boarding a south bound express, refreshingly empty and full of seats. Luckily bumped into a Notts County fan who was seriously on the edge of giving up, which drove us into the arms of Stella. Ducked into a pub at Kings X to see us get done in the eggby before tucking into a glorious Macca's. Happy days....
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