Spireites reserves faced a more experienced Grimsby reserve team. Some familiar faces Greg Fleming, Simon Ford and Frankie Artus were representing the Mariners.
They also had experienced striker Greg Pearson who played 128 games scoring 37 goals for Burton Albion. Defender Ian Milller played 130 games scoring 8 goals for Darlington and Winger Scott Neilson whose played for Bradford and Crawley at League level.
The Only first team players the Spireites had were Hazel, Waddle and Wafula. So it wasn’t going to be easy for the Spireites.
The Spireites also had 3 players on trial, Forbes-Swindells a striker who played for Staveley recently, Oscar Radford and former Grimsby Winger Chris Jones who was probably the most experienced player representing the Spireites, having won the Welsh Premier League Young Player of the Year Award, when playing for Neath in 2010-11 season, sadly the club folded in 2012.
Greg Pearson and Dayle Southwell got the mariners off to great start, putting them 2-0 up.
The Spireites came out with more purpose in the second half and were rewarded with a goal with just over 25 minutes to play. Waddle passed the ball to Forbes-Swindells, he beat his man and then blasted the ball past Fleming.
Youth team keeper Barrington made a couple of good saves to keep the Spireites in the game.
Josh Scully put the sides level when he fired into the top corner of the net, after a pass from Wafula.
Noel came close to getting a winner for the Spireites, but Fleming pulled off a great save to deny the youth player.
Speaking to the club website, Coach John Dungworth said: ‘We applied ourselves well in the second-half and finished the stronger team. ‘
A good performance from the Spireites, their heads didn’t drop against a much more experienced team, and they fought their way back to earn a draw.
Spireites reserves: Barrington, Jones, Radford, Whittaker, Clarke, Noel, Wafula (Fereday 85), Scully, Waddle, Forbes-Swindells, Hazel.
Share this article
Related Articles
