Spireites Fall to Narrow Defeat Against Wigan Athletic.

Chesterfield succumbed to a 3-2 defeat against Wigan Athletic this afternoon at the Proact Stadium. Dan Gardner's curled strike and Leon Barnett's own-goal gave the Spireites a two-goal lead, but Barnett's finish at the right end, a Craig Davies penalty and Jordy Hiwula's tap-in turned the contest on its head.

Dean Saunders made two changes from last Saturday's win at Millwall, as Ollie Banks and Lee Novak took the places of the injured Angel Martinez and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

In the opening moments, Ian Evatt met a driven free-kick and headed straight at Richard O'Donnell who produced an impressive one-handed save. Sean Murray tried his luck from the edge of the area, but was denied by Sam Hird's resolute block.

After beating his marker, Gardner went to ground just inside the area only for the referee to controversially award a free-kick instead. Haris Vuckic struck from around 12 yards and watched his effort sail straight into the stands.

Former Spireite Davies latched onto a neat through-ball and looked almost certain to score only to be denied by Tommy Lee's superb save with the help of his body. Donervon Daniels was forward from his centre-back position and dragged a low effort waywardly wide of the post.

Just before the half-time whistle, Michael Jacobs went one-on-one with Lee and fired straight at the goalkeeper who saved with relative ease.

After the break, Jay O'Shea looked certain to score with his effort from close range, only for the face of Novak to block the ball in its path towards the back of the net. With 63 minutes on the clock, the Spireites took the lead through Gardner's incredible strike from 25 yards that nestled straight into the top right-hand corner of the net.

Just five minutes had passed before the lead was doubled, courtesy of Wigan Athletic's Barnett who mistakenly directed a Daniel Jones free-kick into his own net. On 81 minutes, the Latics reduced the deficit through Barnett who rectified his previous error with a forceful strike from range past a flailing Lee.

Six minutes later, the visitors were awarded a penalty which Davies dispatched to the left-hand side of Lee with consomate ease. A single minute of normal time remained when Gary Caldwell's men completed the comeback as substitute Hiwula netted a simple tap-in from a matter of yards to claim all three points and confine the Spireites to their second league defeat of the 2015/2016 campaign.