In a game played at Birch Park (the home of Bottesford Town) due to Scunthorpe's game at Glandford Park against the MK Dons Chesterfield took another big step towards the League title. Adam Smith opened the scoring only for Scunthorpe to draw level on the half hour mark, but two goals early in the second half from Adam Smith and Tendayi Darikwa to put the Spireites in pole position for silverware and registered their fifteenth win in 23 games.

Craig Clay returned to his usual central midfield birth, after illness last week and Chris Tingay switched to right back with Ryan Granger dropping to the bench. The Scunthorpe team included the four scholars who just had been offered professional contracts for next season. Scunthorpe were clearly to be no push over as four days earlier they had beat Bradford City 6-1 away from home and had won 6 out of their last seven games - conceding only 4 goals in the precess. 

Chesterfield came under early pressure from Scunthorpe but the defence easily dealt with the threat, after good work by Jimmy Adcock and hesitancy in the Irons defence Adam Smith was on hand to lash the ball into the net after 12 minutes. Shortly afterwards keeper Matt Malak was on hand to save a Scunthorpe header.

A Malak goal clearance led to a heart stopping moment mid way threw the first half, when the ball hit the foot of an on rushing Iron player, but luckily the ball bounced wide for a goal kick. Soon afterwards Jordan Bowery began to show his pace, but on 31 minutes Scunthorpe equalised with a bullet header from a corner. 

However, Craig Clay then began to dominate the midfield and Adam Smith and Jordan Bowery started to link well in attack. The half finished with a cross from Ross Burns which led to an Adam Smith header which just went wide.   

Half Time 1-1

Dave Bentley's team talk was confined to the pitch, but just after the re-start Ross Burns nicked the ball off the Iron keeper to cross for Adam Smith to head home his tenth league goal of the season on 48 minutes. As a result of this incident the Scunthorpe received  treatment and was clearly not 100% after this. Later, good work by Jordan Bowery led to Tendayi Darikwa being able to clip the ball over the keeper on 59 minutes to put Chesterfield 3-1 ahead. 

The Spireites now began to dominate and a Chris Tingay cross was headed wide by Adam Smith. Ross Burns and captain Richie Holmes began to shine and Tendayi Darikwa nearly profited from a bad Scunthorpe back pass on the hour mark. By this time the Iron were reduced to long range speculative efforts. Two more chances fell to Tendayi Darikwa but he was unable to convert.

Scunthorpe's last chance of the game on 82 minutes produced an excellent save from Matt Malak and two minutes later a Jordan Bowery header struck the Iron bar. The final whistle produced a tremendous cheer from the Chesterfield contingent in the sparse crowd. 

The win was a testament to the tremendous team spirit that currently exists at Youth Team level and as ever is galvanized by the excellent leadership skills of Dave Bentley who encouraged his team to victory throughout the entire ninety minutes. A win a York next Saturday would guarantee Chesterfield the title, with only Hull City still able to catch us.  

Chesterfield: Malak, Tingay, Clare, Clay, Holmes, Moller, A Smith, Adcock, Darikwa, Bowery, Burns.  Subs not used: S Smith, Granger, Burrow, Needham, Webb.

The update table after todays games reads:

                                P      GD    Pts

1. Chesterfield      23     +9      48        25.4 v York City (a) 

2. Hull City          22    +22     44        York City (a), 2.5 v Boston United (a)