Chesterfield battle it out for return match on home turf

Chesterfield's previous performance against the title leaders much earlier in the season was a little bit scrappy and exposed a good few areas to improve as well as producing a good few injuries leaving key squad member Tom Rice with a dislocated elbow and hopes of playing for the remainder of the season thwarted. Melton's quick style of rugby and a well gelled team proved too much on the day for the visitors and the Panther's went home with a loss but a few lessons learnt that set Chesterfield up for the rest of the season with only a small number of further losses. That said many injuries suffered this season have constantly disrupted the starting line up ensuring that the players have had to adapt quickly to different styles of play.

Melton Mowbray have put in a decent and consistent performance this season by anyone's standards by only having one blemish (a draw against Boston) in what would otherwise be a perfect record, thus they are way ahead of the rest in the league with a battle being fought for position two and three with Chesterfield hoping to reach fourth place.

The weather was very breezy on the day with the ground being exceptionally hard and rough, many of Chesterfield's 'Old & Bold' were present for one of their events which ensured there would be a great supporting crowd, obviously Chesterfield wanted to produce a fine display to watch, make the old boys proud and thank them for their continued support.

With Melton's record in mind, Chesterfield were very conscious of how tough the game would be and set out to prove that they had some gas left in the tank for their very last game of the season. The game proved to be extremely tough and a quickly degenerated in to a battle of attrition. The ground meant that the ball was quick and the players even more so. Chesterfield knew what works for them so set the forwards on their proven tactics of rucking, keeping the ball tight and creating a barrage of heaving runs from Rob Davison, Paul Jones and Steve Allen by dragging in Melton's defence with continued blistering attacks on the outside from Ashley Holland, Christian Brailsford, Liam O'Neill and Jamie Barnet. On the turn once Melton got the ball in hand they produced to some exceptionally quick ball which was in the centre's hands in the blink of an eye ensuring that Nick Fenton and Ben Bunting were having to deliver some body crunching tackles and enough to make sure the ball got no further to Melton's overlap of players which kept the back three of Ian Watson, Glenn Grayson and John Ryan busy sweeping the ground to match man for man. One particular tackle on the line from Bunting ensured a try was not scored to his and the team's relief.

After a good number of wearisome minutes Chesterfield were awarded a penalty, in order to get some early points on the board Ian Watson stepped up and slotted the ball between the sticks. Even by this point players from both sides were showing the signs of such exertion such was the ferocity of play and pride of the badge.

Chesterfield by now were well aware of Melton's strengths and were encouraged to disrupt where possible. Scrums were dominated by the Chesterfield pack eager to show their strength which upset the Melton forwards who were giving as good as they got on occasion. The wind caused constant problems for the line outs which ended rather less predictably.

As the game progressed Melton were becoming quickly aware that Chesterfield were to be no walk over and were highly charged, frustrations meant that a couple of tempers frayed and resulted in a few heated exchanges. The tackles and pounding runs were consistent throughout with the results starting to show on the battle weary bodies. Chesterfield gained further 4 penalty kicks but only two more were converted due to strong gusts this in turn kept the kicking game to a minimum.

With the game moving forward and Chesterfield spending much of the time in their half Melton's superior fitness eventually came into effect where their insurmountable attacks paid off with four tries of which three were converted. Melton were very good at minimising the number of forwards they sent in to the rucks and delivering speedy ball to what always seemed like a consistent overlap of players, once they got the ball in hand their angles of running split the defending channels which meant they tended to drag in at least three Chesterfield defenders which enabled to exploit the fewer players Chesterfield had remaining on their feet. Many chances of the ball being overturned by Chesterfield resulted in a penalty being awarded which made them very weary to keep attempting.

Chesterfield were on a good number of occasions denied penetration from their straight and powerful running as the Melton defence were clearly very clinical whereby one man took the upper body and another the lower of the attacker that caused even the most aggressive and stronger of the Chesterfield runners issues, Melton always had one man trying to rip the ball but the Chesterfield players were too strong and retained possession allowing the nearest men to ruck over for Jordan Grayson to ship. At times Chesterfield got nail bitingly close to scoring a couple of tries that would have evened the tally up a little.

As the final whistle blew the squad knew that although there were a few missed opportunities they had worked hard to the bone and their bodies took the toll with many bruises, cuts and friction burns, they were proud to dominate in a number of aspects of the game and more importantly what to build on for next season.

Looking back since September, a few silly mistakes that perhaps would have been different on another day prevented promotion, however, Chesterfield have a solid foundation to work on with Coach Derek Sherlock. Sevens will be played by a few members of the squad over the summer with fitness and pre-season training commencing after the tour in May.

Squad: Steve Allen, Rob Davison, Paul Jones, Christian Brailsford, Liam O'Neill, Alex Allen, Ashley Holland, Jamie Barnett, Jordan Grayson, Chris Cooper, Nick Fenton, Ben Bunting, Ian Watson, Glenn Grayson, John Ryan. Subs: Tye Rose, Alex Hughes, Chris Windle - all subs made an appearance.