Spireites Seal Convincing Victory Against Fleetwood Town.

Chesterfield cruised to a 3-0 victory against Fleetwood Town at the Proact Stadium earlier today, with Caolan Lavery, Sam Hird and Sam Morsy netting in this contest to claim the team’s first win in a total of five outings. Antoni Sarcevic was dismissed just before the half-time break, which inevitably led to an up-hill struggle for the visitors during the time that followed.

Paul Cook made three alterations from last Saturday’s defeat at Rochdale, as Ian Evatt, Daniel Jones and Lavery took the places of Ashley Carter, Gboly Ariyibi and Armand Gnanduillet.

In the opening moments, David Ball rose above everybody else to meet a driven cross and force a low diving save to the left-hand side by Tommy Lee. Only ten minutes had been played in this contest before Jones had to withdraw from proceedings because of an ankle injury that led to the earlier-than-expected introduction of Ariyibi.

Banks went close with a stunning strike from distance that forced visiting goalkeeper Chris Maxwell into a magnificent save to push the ball onto the crossbar and ultimately out for a corner-kick. With 31 minutes on the clock, Lavery opened the scoring with a low strike past Maxwell from 12 yards after receiving a low and incisive cross from first-half substitute Ariyibi who took the initiative of driving towards the penalty area.

Just 12 minutes had passed before the Spireites grabbed their second of the afternoon, after Hird capitalised on a loose ball on the six-yard line to finish past a helpless Maxwell following a free-kick from range. In the aftermath of the goal, Sarcevic was sent for an early bath as a consequence of continued dissent towards the referee that provoked two yellow cards in the space of a single minute.

Immediately after the break, Hird connected with a looping corner-kick that was saved on the line by the legs of Maxwell. Stood over a free-kick in an inviting position, Banks eventually attempted to curl the ball into the top left-hand corner of the net only to be denied by the outstretched palm of Maxwell.

Just past the hour mark, the Spireites netted a third and put daylight between the two teams as Morsy latched onto a low Ariyibi pull-back to finish with ease into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. Following the third goal, visiting manager Graham Alexander was sent to the stands because of continuous protests towards the referee that emulated his dismissed forward at the end of the first 45 minutes.

Continuing to push forward, Byron Harrison managed to evade his marker and go one-on-one with Maxwell before firing low in the goalkeeper’s direction and spurning a glorious opportunity. For the full four minutes of additional time, the Spireites conserved possession and sealed a convincing home victory to bring a dismal run of four straight defeats to an abrupt end.