On Tuesday 16th August 2011 I was at the B2Net Stadium to watch Chesterfield host Preston North End, who were relegated from the Championship last season.
I had been looking forward to this game since the fixtures came out as Preston are one of the bigger teams in League 1 this season. It isn’t long since they were in the Championship play offs so to have them playing at the B2Net Stadium was exciting. However, neither side had got off to a good start this season with both teams picking up just a single point from the first two games, so I felt there was a chance for the Spireites to get something from the match.
As the game got underway it quickly became clear that it was going to be an uphill struggle for Chesterfield, with Preston having the likes of Hume, Mellor and Carlisle in their team. After 17 minutes Clarke Carlisle headed the ball home straight from a corner to put the away side 1-0 ahead.
From here Chesterfield played much better and had plenty of possession of the ball, but just lacked the finish that was needed. Our lack of strikers really showed against better opposition as Jack Lester simply couldn’t do it all alone.
At the start of the second half Chesterfield had probably their best spell, again having a lot of the ball but still failing to really do anything with it. The spell was stopped dead on the 70th minute when Barry Nicholson’s header bounced over Tommy Lee to make it 2-0 to the visitors and almost certainly confirm the victory.
Sheridan took off Morgan, Lester and Niven to be replaced by Bowery, Boden and Lowry after the second goal, but by now the game was back in Preston’s control, and they could have easily scored more than 2 goals.
The game ended 2-0 to the away side, equalling the Spireites’ biggest home defeat along with the 2-0 defeat to Morecambe last season. However the defeat wasn’t a huge surprise, as they were a Championship side last season and they still have many class players, while we were a League 2 side last season and we have lost some of our most influential players during the summer.
After the match I got photos with Preston players Iain Hume, Neil Mellor, Clarke Carlisle, Jamie Proctor and Andreas Arestidou as well as their first team coach David Unsworth. I also got a photo with manager Phil Brown, who led Hull City to the top flight for the first time in their history back in 2008 and is now in charge of Preston North End.
Preston North End make their first ever visit to the B2Net Stadium
The Sun looks over the stadium
The players line up before kick off
963 travelling Preston fans
The Kop with the Chesterfield flag
The scoreboard before kick off
The game begins
Neil Mellor, who scored against Chesterfield for Sheffield Wednesday last season
Iain Hume in action
Preston players celebrate taking an early lead
Goalscorer for Preston is Clarke Carlisle
The Sun sets over the B2Net Stadium
The second half begins
The away fans celebrate their sides second goal
Final score 0-2
The Preston players coach
Jamie Proctor
Andreas Arestidou
Neil Mellor
Clarke Carlisle
Iain Hume
First Team Coach David Unsworth
ryan147.com 
Well done young man. I’m a PNE fan living in Southport who went to the match with my Chesterfield born Supporter(he’s been away for 40 years so it was quite sentimental & Saltergate is no more). We had a great day out, good match, great fans from both sides & the way it should be. Good pics as well
Regards
just thought id say what a great article and if only ever club had a fan who did this, well thought out view, this was posted up on a preston forum most people think its a good article!!
Well done Ryan, you are a credit to your generation.
From a long standing of over 50 years PNE supporter.
Great read Ryan, all the best to Chesterfield this year. Looking forward to welcoming you to Deepdale in March, hopefully you will get the same warm reception Chesterfield fans gave us.
Up the Lilywhites!
Ryan, excellent read you must have a future in journalism. People like you are what football is about, not the Man u or Chelsea hangers on. Congratulations on a good article and for staying behind your side.
Great read Ryan. Great blog too ! I trust you have an autograph book for when you’re meeting everyone ! AS posted earlier, so nice to see local following instead of an armchair follower of a “so called big club”. Good luck for your future, although your hard work, not luck, is achieving what you want!
Well done young man from a PNE supporter for over 55 years your parents must be immensely proud of you you are a credit to your club and yourself
Keep it up.
Well you will have no problem passing your English GCSE! This is a really fine article. Thanks for taking the trouble to write it, I enjoyed it! I concur with what others have said too … it is good to see people actually support their local sides. I often ask the so called fans of Man Utd, Liverpool etc road directions to their respective grounds – and surprise surprise they can’t do it! Hope you enjoy the return trip in March, even if I can’t want you to take any points from the game! 😉
An excellent blog Ryan, this is a breath of fresh air to have such enthusiastic and unbiased coverage. You have a future in sports reporting I think. Good luck for the rest of the season, John (PNE fan)
All i can say is what a fantastic read.Well done young man. From a Preston fan down under…
Well it somewhat brings us down to earth when you realise how other fans regard us and the Ryan’s honesty humbles me because we are all together as real football club fans ok yes MU , MC , TH, Lpool and Arsenal have their real diehards also but a Chesterfield young lad supporting his home town team is great!
Fans like Ryan and our own deserved the World Cup and Septic Bladder forgot all about our grass roots football just seeing the Prem which all EUFA/FIFA have a loathing for IMO is totally unjustified and bias verging on zenaphobic !
Keep it up Ryan and good luck to the Spireites.
Great blog Ryan, well written and even handed, good to see lads like you supporting their local team. I enjoyed the trip to Chesterfield again after all these years, just a shame it wasn’t Saltergate as that was a cracking ‘old school’ type of ground, not many left in England now sadly. Keep up the good work.