Spireites Fall to Defeat Against Coventry City.

Chesterfield fell to a 3-2 defeat against Coventry City at the Proact Stadium yesterday afternoon, with goals for the visitors coming courtesy of Marcus Tudgay, Sanmi Odelusi and Frank Nouble. Jay O’Shea and second-half substitute Gboly Ariyibi netted for the Spireites, but the side as a whole couldn’t do enough to rescue anything from this contest.

Paul Cook made one enforced change for this particular encounter, as Daniel Jones replaced the suspended Sam Morsy after the influential midfielder picked up his tenth yellow card of the season in the previous outing against Milton Keynes Dons.

With just six minutes on the clock, the Sky Blues took the lead through a looping Tudgay header that evaded Tommy Lee as it nestled into the bottom right-hand corner of the net. Looking for an immediate equaliser, Caolan Lavery tried his luck with an over-head kick that was solidly blocked on the six-yard line by a member of the Coventry City defence.

Involved once again, Lavery took matters into his own hands with a low shot from distance that was nervously pushed behind for a corner-kick. Ollie Banks delivered for Ian Evatt, whose header landed comfortably in the palms of Lee Burge.

Only three minutes were left to play in the first period when O’Shea levelled the scoring through a low and driven attempt from around 25 yards, which took a welcome deflection before making its way past Burge. Lavery pounced and struck first-time towards goal before being denied by a timely block, which ended the first 45 minutes in a positive manner for the Spireites.

After the break, Evatt rose above everybody else to display his aerial prowess before heading high and ultimately wide of the crossbar. On 65 minutes, Odelusi made an instant impact after entering from the substitutes’ bench by meeting a low ball on the six-yard line and finishing with ease to put the away side back in front.

Taking up free-kick duties, Banks delivered to the head of Ritchie Humphreys who unintentionally directed the ball onto the roof of the net. With 15 minutes left to play, Nouble capitalised on a mis-placed pass towards Humphreys and galloped towards Lee before finishing calmly in a one-on-one situation from approximately 12 yards.

Ariyibi reduced the deficit with five minutes to go, as a low ball across the face of goal found the energetic winger who shot first-time past a diving Burge from an awkward angle. Continuously pushing for a third and that all-important equaliser, the Spireites went close during the four minutes of additional time with a Lavery effort that was palmed away by a resolute Burge.