Last week, I questioned whether the Latics could be dark horses in the Division 2 automatic promotion race. With the pressure off and the bookies quoting 25-1 for the flailing runner at the back of the pack, the Latics now appear to have been decent odds. Like in any good drama, any enthralling sporting event or even an Alfred Hitchcock movie, a massive plot-twister always occurs and on Saturday, the race for 2nd place turned on its head as Cardiff & Crewe slipped up, whilst Bristol City could only draw.
Before the day's games began, the Latics had looked to be coasting towards a play-off place. Most had all but resigned themselves to the fact that 2nd place was out of reach, of course, except for Dowie. However, Tuesday night saw what Latics fans had hoped - that other teams in the play-off places would take points off each other as they still had to meet. Crewe and Bristol City drew. Nobody expected the lesser teams of Division 2 to wade in with their say though, as Peterborough hit Cardiff on Wednesday, whilst Swindon and Colchester upset both Crewe and Cardiff yesterday. Now the Latics look dangerously close to contesting the outcome of the 2nd place.
It wasn't just seeing the pleasantly surprising results at 4.50pm which made Latics fans wonder about 2nd place though, it was a well greased machine which totally ripped the Spireites apart in the 1st half. Did the visitors look that bad, or were the hosts that good? I think it was the latter of the 2. Baudet was inspirational, Wiggy and Andrews looked the deadliest they've been all season, Eyres and Low paraded the wings like military men whilst at the back, Miskelly had his best game ever and collected his first full professional clean sheet.
The hosts started the brighter with 3 early forages forward, the best when Baudet almost connected to head home Eyres' cross but Blatherwick just nipped in to clear. However, the Latics were failing to test the Chesterfield stopper. Nothing highlighted this more than when Baudet's excellent play found Murray free in the box. With his back to goal, under-par Murray played a woeful ball for Winjhard who needed it placed correctly for him to run in and smash home from the edge of the box. However, the pass went slightly to his left causing him to skew his effort wide.
Finally though, the hosts pressure told. Another sweetly carved move opened the visitors defence and again Baudet was involved. The Frenchman cleverly toed a long ball into Murray's path as he flew down the left. With a pinpoint cross, the ball beat everyone except Andrews who stormed in at the far post to power his header home. 1-0.
The Latics failure to push on for a 2nd goal has often been a problem this season, but within minutes of taking the lead they were looking for it. On 22, Baudet's long ranger looked to be heading in but took a deflection wide.
Knowing that relegation was fast creeping up on them, Chesterfield had to push forward. A sorry tale of 9pts from 51 before this game had left them 3pts clear of the drop. But in pushing forward, the Latics were going to find enough room to exploit. The visitors 1st chance came from Hurst's hopeful effort on 24, but from the edge of the box he shot high and wide of the far post.
With the game open and free-flowing the Latics enjoyed the lions share of possession now. Yet despite looking fluent in creativity, it took a huge defensive error to gift the hosts a 2nd. A ball into the box bounced between 3 Chesterfield players before it finally hit Reeves and landed at Wiggy's feet. With the 3 players blocking his way to goal from the edge of the box, Wiggy cut the ball onto his preferred foot and slotted a low shot round the players and into the back of the net. 2-0.
Chances were coming at both ends now. On 31, Eyres powered a 25 yard free-kick at goal. The rising shot clipped Reeves' head causing it to demand a fingertip save from the Chesterfield keeper. On 32, Miskelly made a point blank save from Allott and then from the resultant corner, the Latics broke to find Wiggy and Andrews, two versus the one defender. Andrews failed to pass though and frustratingly hit a weak effort that was comfortably claimed.
With the match now end-to-end, Allott fired a 30 yard effort which grazed a post on 36. The hosts broke again, with this time Sheridan feeding Murray into the box. With his marker just doing enough, Murray failed to find enough power to beat the Spireites keeper.
It seemed that every time Chesterfield attacked now, the Latics would attack and look even more deadly. This again happened on 43. Miskelly seemed to know little about it when he stopped Payne's close range effort with his feet. The Latics broke again to see Andrews try a curling effort from 20 yards but this deflected out for a corner. Eyres' ball in appeared to be nodded home by Haining, but somehow Close managed to nod the ball off the line.
Having dominated the Latics still needed to be wary of Chesterfield as they appeared to look better as the half progressed. However, it was a case of making sure the hosts weren't caught cold after the break, but that nearly proved hard to do. A strong start to the 2nd half from the visitors saw Douglas played through a static Latics defence. Miskelly was alert and gathered the effort well.
The Latics continued to look shaky for a while, but slowly they gathered their wits and on 58, Baudet sounded another warning to the Chesterfield goal as his long range drive looked to be heading in, but deflected wide again. Then on 64, it should've been 3-0 as Andrews latched onto a defensive error and raced clear. The Chesterfield keeper rushed to the edge of the box and Andrews unnecessarily delayed, so much so that his effort was fired directly into the keeper's body. However, it rebounded back to hit Andrews and fly agonisingly over a gaping goal, by inches.
With the visitors not yet dead and buried, Reeves missed a glorious chance to pull one back on 65 as he received a cross whilst unmarked. However, the former Latics striker volleyed hopelessly into the Chaddy End causing laughter and chants from the home support. The best chant being "same old Reevesie, always useless."
Having not looked as inspired as in the 1st half, the Latics were struggling to get a third by the 70th minute marker and looked considerably quieter. Indeed, it was Douglas who should've brought the visitors back into it, but Armstrong superbly lunged infront of his drive from 8 yards which would probably have beaten Miskelly.
Within seconds of that warning from Chesterfield, the Latics finally put them to bed. Low showed a glimpse of what he can do when he gets aggressive and on 75, he powered past his marker to leave him for dead. Running into the right edge of the box, Low fired a drive across the 6 yard box and Wiggy nipped in to slot home his 2nd and the Latics 3rd. 3-0.
The game was wrapped up now, but the Latics weren't done yet. It was a fortunate misplaced pass from Murray which sent Eyres in behind and with work to do, the former Preston winger raced in from his left wing to face a one-on-one with the keeper. With Eyresie, there's only ever one outcome and he expertly slotted under the stopper and into the far corner. 4-0.
The Latics looked like they score again at any moment now as Chesterfield had long given up. And on 88, Wiggy could've had his hat-trick. In a goalmouth scramble from a Latics corner, the Dutchman fired an effort into a crowd only to see it blocked. Armstrong followed up to fire the rebound over.
In a game where the Latics created constantly, they had once again kept up this recent phenomenal rate of 20 chances per game. This time they registered 21, with 15 of them heading on-target, all of which shows the Blues are hitting top gear at the right time.
Now with newly crowned Champions Wigan coming up next, the race for 2nd place is very interesting now. And when you look at our rivals next fixtures, a shaken Crewe face a Barnsley side knowing that a 2nd consecutive win will ensure 2nd Division football this season. Should the Tykes do us a favour and we win at Wigan, then we can sit back and hand it over to Bristol City and Cardiff, who play each other on Tuesday night. That makes the Wigan game our most important in years. And I believe if we win that, it'll all fall into place for us and we will do it. But winning in Wigan is a huge "if".
As the famous words go, "success comes to those who keep their head, while those around them lose theirs." Cardiff and Crewe appear to be losing theirs big time. Can the Latics keep their heads? Come on, you know you can do it!!!