Blues Buzzing After Beating The Bees

 

    Photo by Michael South Photography

Another game under the lights for the Spireites, with league leaders Barnet the visitors this time. It felt a bit different having Friday night football at the Technique Stadium, but considering we have a game on Monday it made sense. With Barnet top of the table and Chesterfield not managing to hold on to their 2-0 lead last weekend, this looked like it would be a tough test for Town, on paper. One change for the Spireites with Covolan coming back from suspension to replace Fitzsimons in net. 3-1 was my prediction before the game...

Seeing as we found ourselves 1-0 up within two minutes, we'll start with a goal! Horton put a great cross in from the left hand side which reached King who took a shot on goal, but the ball was blocked, resulting in a Spireites corner. As the corner came in, it was just taken away from Asante, but it fell to Banks on the edge of the area who fired it into the bottom corner. A fantastic start for the Blues! Although Barnet did have more of the ball for the next ten minutes or so, the Spireites had a great chance to go 2-0 up. After Barnet failed to make the most of a promising free-kick, King played a beautiful, diagonal, cross-field ball to Dobra who sprinted into the Barnet penalty area with the ball but was just stretching at the last second and, as he was one-on-one with the 'keeper, poked the ball wide. It became a big chance missed when Barnet levelled the game in the 17th minute. Sheilds, from the edge of the area, found the top corner with a good finish to make it 1-1. Game on again. 

Both teams had their fair share of chances, but it was Chesterfield who finally made their’s count with a well worked goal in the 33rd minute. Quigley got the ball out to Mandeville who found King on the right. King whipped the ball in before it was pushed out by Walker straight to Asante's feet for him to slot the ball home. 2-1 Chesterfield! Barnet did have a couple of chances to level things up again before the break. In the 38th minute, Gorman tried to catch Covolan off guard with a freekick from the half way line. Seeing Covolan out of his net, Gorman took his chance, but luckily the ball just cleared the crossbar as Covolan scrambled back. Another Barnet chance came in the 45th minute when Kabamba found himself through on goal, but Covolan made himself big and got a foot on it to make the save. Barnet thought they had levelled in the dying seconds of the first half, but the goal was ruled offside and the Blues went into the break 2-1 up.

Although the second half started with a good ball over the top to send Barnet striker De Havilland away, he was unable to take his chance and the rest of the half saw the Blues very much on top. Five minutes into the second half, there was a bit of a, let's say, kerfuffle when Dobra was fouled just outside the Barnet area, but as he made his way into the area he looked to have been kicked by a Barnet player. The free kick came to nothing though as Jeff King fired it in, only for it to come off of a Barnet head to be cleared away. It looked like the game might get heated a few minutes later when, whilst waiting for a Barnet corner to come in, Covolan went down in an off the ball incident and cries of 'off, off, off!' sounded around the Technique. Admittedly, I didn't see what happened as I was live tweeting about the corner, but nothing was given by the referee, despite Chesterfield's protests. Following this, Chesterfield had a number of chances and Quigley could have had a couple of goals, but it wasn't to be. His shot needed a big save from Walker and his glancing header from the resulting corner took another big save from Walker onto the crossbar. 

In the 70th minute Kabongo Tshimanga came on for Quigley, much to Town fans' delight. After singing his name as he was warming up, it's clear how much fans appreciate him and want him back on the pitch after his horrible injury last season. Fans' excitement was nearly dampened though when Barnet won a corner that came out to Gorman on the edge of the area who blasted the ball towards goal, hitting the post. Just a minute later, it was Chesterfield on the attack and Kabby got his long awaited goal. In the 73rd minute, Dobra played a delicious ball through to Tshimanga with the outside of his boot and Kabby found himself one-on-one with the 'keeper. Keeping his composure, he slotted the ball home to make it 3-1 to the Blues and the celebration was emotional. All of the Town players were around him and the Technique was rocking.

I was right then, a 3-1 win for the Blues in what was a fantastic performance. Chesterfield played magnificently and displayed peak fitness throughout the game. After last season’s never ending injury list, it was good to see. Barnet did give the Spireites a good game in the first half and showed how they’d found themselves top of the table but the Blues were just too good in the second half. Altrincham away up next on Monday, here’s hoping for another three points! 

Up The Blues!

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