Connor Dimaio delights Danny Wilson in Chesterfield's vital win over Crewe

Chesterfield-born Dimaio scored the third to secure three vital points for the Spireites against a struggling Crewe at the Proact Stadium on Saturday, in only his second start for Wilson’s side following the 1-1 draw at Colchester United in midweek.

“He deserved his goal,” said Wilson. “He’s got great energy levels, so has Ollie, and I think what pleased me more than anything was when there were times in the game when you needed to have discipline and they showed it. They’ve just carried on from the Colchester game.”

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Lee Novak put Chesterfield in to a two-goal lead after only 12 minutes in a first half that saw Chris Herd, drafted back in to the side for the suspended Gary Liddle, substituted with a hip injury and then Crewe half the deficit.

Wilson said: “I thought it was a very good performance and it really didn’t matter today how we performed - it was about getting three points. When you look at the scores up and down the country you can see the bottom teams are starting to pick points up, so it was important (to win).

“We knew we had to match the other teams. We came out today and scored two quick-fire goals, we wanted to start brightly, we’ve been watching Crewe over the past three or four weeks and in every game we’ve watched they’ve had a slow start and teams have scored early door against them.

“It was important we took advantage of that and we did. We scored two goals but I never thought it was going to be enough because they’re a good side and I think in parts of the game you see what a good team they can be, and how much problems they can cause teams, but I thought we coped with it very well.”

Wilson handed defender Declan John, who joined the Spireites on a month’s loan from Cardiff City this week, his first start and the Chesterfield manager was impressed with his overall performance in only his second first team outing of the season.

“I thought he started a bit shaky, as you’d expect, but he settled down as the game went on and some of the attacking play as is getting better, as he fits in to the team,” said Wilson.

“I was delighted with his debut and young Connor as well. At home he and Ollie again got to grips with the game. They carried on from midweek against Colchester.”

Four points from their last two games has seen Chesterfield jump out of the bottom four in League One, up to 19th, but just a point above the drop zone, with Fleetwood and Oldham both winning. The Spireites travel to high-flying Gillingham next week, who lost away at the Latics.

“I would have liked to have known what the return would have been if we’d have had eleven men on Tuesday night,” said Wilson. “It could have been six points, who knows? But that’s behind us now. We can’t really worry about that too much now.

He added: “Today was a big game for us, it wasn’t going to be pivotal for us but it’s the start of a run hopefully. Two unbeaten, let’s go and make it three next week.”