Spireites Stun Southend

 

      Photo by Michael South Photography

Strap yourselves in, people, this was one heck of a game! 

On the back of another two wins against Aldershot and Oldham, respectively, Chesterfield were sitting a point clear at the top of The National League. After a break over the weekend in respect of the passing of Her Majesty The Queen, The Spireites were back in action at the Technique Stadium for another night game. Mid-table Southend Utd the visitors this time. Another game which has people saying “It’s not that long since this was a League One fixture!” Considering recent performances, this probably looked like it would be a comfortable win for Chesterfield, on paper. Try telling that to my notepad!

The Shrimpers got off to the better start, but were unable to take their chance to put themselves ahead when Dan Mooney fired wide. After this, The Spireites took control of the game, but just couldn’t find the back of the net. Joe Quigley had a shot veer wide of the post on the 11th minute before carnage from a corner saw Jamie Grimes hit the crossbar and the ball hit everywhere but the back of the net, before Southend got the ball clear. Chesterfield sent the ball back and Quigley did find the back off the net, only to be ruled offside. All within thirty seconds! It didn’t take long though before the deadlock was broken. After a cut back into the box from Liam Mandeville, Jack Clarke produced a fine turn and finish into the top left hand corner to put Chesterfield ahead on the 19th minute. A well worked goal which started with Ollie Banks in the middle of the pitch. 

After this, The Blues remained on top of the game until Southend equalised with a goal from Callum Powell just after the half-hour mark. 1-1. For the rest of the half, The Blues looked rather cagey and made a few mistakes trying to pass the ball around the back and back to the ‘keeper. One of these mistakes proved costly when Lucas Covolan rolled the ball straight out to a Southend player who Banks slid in to challenge and the ref played advantage. After Southend failed to score, the ref was surrounded by their players before showing Banks a red card right on the stroke of half-time. Not the best way to end the half and The Spireites would have to try to at least hold on for the second half with ten players. 

Southend kicked off the second-half and a minute later went 1-2 up courtesy of new loan signing Marcus Dackers. It wasn’t looking good for The Blues. They were now going to have to push for an equaliser with one less player on the pitch, and push they did. Chesterfield did most of the pressing and the fans also turned things up a notch, getting ever louder to spur The Blues on. Their encouragement worked when Quigley took on three Southend defenders before taking a shot from the edge of the area, on his left, across goal and in! The Spireites were level and the Technique was bouncing. Talk about the 12th player, well…11th. 2-2 after 63 minutes and this is probably the point where most teams with reduced numbers would have sat back and took the draw. Not Town. 

Just six minutes after Quigley’s equaliser, Jeff King produced a sublime finish 25 yards from goal. Curled in on his left foot, from the right hand side, the ball flew straight into the top left hand corner. A goal to be watched over and over. 3-2 to Chesterfield and, despite having a few chances with Jes Uchegbulam, who had earlier replaced Clarke, making some extremely pacey runs down the right wing, Chesterfield did begin to go on the defence. Absolute desire was shown from the team with Quigley defending from the front and everyone but him back keeping Southend at bay. Covolan made some great saves, including one from point-blank range in the final minutes of the game. The six added minutes seemed to last six hours, but the ref eventually blew for full-time and The Spireites keep their spot at the top of the league! 

Last season, we wouldn’t have won that game. A draw at best, and to be fair that’s probably all that was hoped for at half time last night. There’s definitely something different about the squad this season, the passing movements, the general flow, the balls sprayed across the pitch reaching their target and the players are giving their all. Ollie Banks will be a big loss for the next couple of games as he has been outstanding so far this season, but we have good squad depth and Tim Akinola looked good when he came on last night. 

Yeovil away on Saturday, three points again please, lads! 

Up The Blues! 

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