NL: Chesterfield v Torquay United 7:45pm

I never really expected get anything at Chesterfield. With eight games to go, I thought we would have to win six out of eight and thought that Chesterfield and Wrexham were the two we had no chance in. As it is, we will now need at least a point off Wrexham.

Is is not losing to good teams like Chesterfield that gets you relegated. It is losing to, or at least not beating, so many poor teams that has done for us.

Colclough and Dallas are two of the players that have impressed me most in this league when playing for Altrincham and Solihull. The kind of players I would love us to sign if we had the budget. Excellent players at this level, as are Mandeville and McCallum - so they made up a pretty scary front four.

We have got away with three at the back against poor teams despite Stobbs and Collins not really having the defensive qualities to play at wing back. We got badly found out by Chesterfield’s quality. We really needed Hall for his ability to drop back to become our fourth defender. Even a fully fit Lapslie and Dawson would not have given us that, but might have given us an effective barrier in front of the back three.

The usually reliable Lapslie had an absolute nightmare. I assume that he was not fit, but even that does not explain his constant passing to the opposition. Was his injury colour-blindness? He was so bad that I actually thought it was Ryan Hanson playing in a Tom Lapslie mask.

As the back three was overrun, we moved to a back four by bringing on Omar, but this just left two in centre midfield to be overrun. Evans is o.k.as the third “luxury” advanced central midfielder, but too lightweight to be one of a two.

With Nouble struggling to get in the game, the obvious move would have been to sacrifice him and go 4-3-3, even if the third midfielder was a choice of Wyatt or McGavin. That would have had the additional benefit of resting Nouble up for Altrincham were we really will need him firing on all cylinders. I am all for defending from the front and having players holding the ball in the opponents’ half, but we could not even get into the opponents’ half to hold the ball there.

In the end, we were very lucky to come out with just a 5-1 defeat. 8-0 would have been a better reflection of the game.

Chesterfield are a very good team and Notts County will have their work cut out to get past them in the playoffs.

A defeat not unexpected, but the size of it is so damaging. We had a chance of matching Maidenhead for goal difference if tied on points. That has all but gone.

Had Aldershot lost, or even drawn, they and York would have been damaging each other tomorrow to leave one or the other catchable. I fully expect Aldershot to roll over now and let York join them beyond our reach.

So the forlorn hope is that Maidenhead lose twice, we beat Alty and somehow scrape a point against Wrexham.

We really need Wrexham to win tomorrow, clinch the title and spend the week on the p*ss celebrating.

Even if they are very badly hung over, there is a hell of a gap in class to bridge.

We would need Lapslie, Hall and Dawson all fully fit to even get a foothold in the game. But if we don’t beat Alty, it won’t matter anyway.