Spireites Wayward in Wigan.

Chesterfield fell to a 3-1 defeat against Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Finishes from Max Power, Reece James and Michael Jacobs sealed the three points whilst labelling a second-half strike by Ollie Banks as meaningless.

Danny Wilson made one alteration for this particular encounter, as Dan Gardner took the place of Gboly Ariyibi.

With six minutes on the clock, the home side opened the scoring through Power’s forceful yet unchallenged effort from 20 yards that nestled straight into the top left-hand corner of the net. Jay O'Shea advanced before feeding a short pass to Sam Morsy, who failed to beat his marker on the edge of the area and ultimately lost possession.

Involved once again, Power tried his luck from a similar distance only to watch his attempt sail narrowly wide of the post. Lee Novak picked up possession inside the area, took one touch and fired wide of the post by a matter of inches.

On 38 minutes, the home side doubled their advantage courtesy of a James finish from outside the area which was helped by a timely deflection in making its way past Tommy Lee. Seconds later, Jacobs went one-on-one with Lee before finishing past the goalkeeper with ease to give his side a valuable three-goal lead.

Just before the half-time whistle, O'Shea took matters into his own hands with a strike from range that sailed straight into the stands.

After the break, Jacobs fired straight in the direction of Lee who performed a simple save prior to instigating an attack for his side. Power forced Lee into action for a second time in quick succession, but the midfielder’s curled effort was held well by the goalkeeper on this occasion.

Latching onto a loose ball inside the area created a good opportunity for Novak, only for the forward to fire waywardly wide of the post when expected to reduce the deficit. Rai Simons made an instant impact from the substitutes’ bench, after breaking free and forcing Jussi Jaaskelainen into a diving save.

On 80 minutes, the Spireites reduced the deficit through Banks who struck first-time from a Novak knock-down and watched his attempt make light work of Jaaskelainen’s one-handed attempt to make a save. For the full four minutes of additional time, the home side maintained possession and claimed all three points from this fixture.