Spireites Defeat Shrewsbury Town.

Chesterfield got back to winning ways with a victory over Shrewsbury Town at Greenhous Meadow by a 2-1 scoreline, courtesy of two impressive finishes from both Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and club captain Sam Morsy. Mat Sadler grabbed the only goal of the game for the home side, which obviously wasn’t enough to prevent a win for the Spireites.

Dean Saunders made just one single change from Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Sheffield United, with recent signing Angel Martinez taking the place of Ollie Banks in midfield.

In the opening moments, Martin Woods tried his luck from the speculative distance of 25 yards and watched the ball sail straight into the stands. Daniel Jones made his way down the left-hand side before crossing towards Ebanks-Blake, whose header flew wide of the post and never troubled opposing goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler.

After beating his marker on the right-hand side, Dan Gardner fired a low ball across the six-yard line although a fellow member of the attack failed to make that all-important connection. Involved once again, Gardner took matters into his own hands with an individual run that culminated in a low shot that eventually bounced out of play for a goal-kick.

Waiting on the edge of the area, the ball fell kindly for Liam Lawrence who struck on the half-volley but ultimately failed to force a save from Tommy Lee who prepared to instigate another Chesterfield attack. Gardner showed an impressive amount of skill to beat his marker before leaving much to be desired with his end product as the ball sailed straight out of play.

Just before the half-time whistle, Lee Novak found himself in an inviting position to shoot near the penalty spot, only to direct the ball into the stands when expected to force Leutwiler into action at the very least.

Only five minutes had been played in the second period when the Spireites opened the scoring through a moment of individual brilliance from Ebanks-Blake, who picked up possession just inside the area before turning and calmly placing the ball past a flailing Leutwiler. There could have been a quick-fire second, but Gardner managed to strike the crossbar with Leutwiler at his mercy from around 12 yards.

On 64 minutes, Morsy doubled Chesterfield’s lead with a convincing finish into the bottom right-hand corner of the net that followed a neat pull-back towards the midfielder by Novak. Getting in on the act for a second time in a matter of minutes, Morsy tried his luck from just outside the area only for the ball to sail narrowly wide of Leutwiler’s post.

With 87 minutes on the clock, the home side reduced the deficit through Sadler’s sensational strike from distance that beat Lee all-ends-up as it nestled straight into the top right-hand corner of the net. For the full four minutes of additional time, the Spireites retained possession successfully and sealed their second league victory from a total of three outings.