'˜We're getting better with every game and we have to keep building'

Chesterfield looked resolute for the vast majority of their friendly against Sheffield United on Tuesday night and it took two special long-range efforts to beat them.

The Blades were 2-1 winners at the Proact, after going behind to a Chris O’Grady goal in the first half.

But the scoreline didn’t tell the whole story - Town had a gilt-edged opportunity to go 2-0 up when Gozie Ugwu rounded keeper Simon Moore and found the post instead of the empty net.

Jak McCourt also rattled the bar with a long range thunderbolt after United had gone ahead for the first time.

Caldwell was very pleased with what he saw.

“I thought it was an extremely good pre-season friendly,” he said.

“I thought the first half was very evenly matched, the second half we struggled to get out but looked a threat on the counter attack and should have gone 2-0 up.

“When you miss chances like that you fear the worst, but it was really positive in terms of working on where we’re going.

“I think we’re getting better in every game and we have to keep building on that.”

One thing that really impressed the manager was how well they defended from front to back.

Their efforts were particularly noticeable in and around the box, where several players made vital blocks and headers to frustrate last season’s League One winners.

The Scot said: “We worked hard up front to stop balls coming forward, midfield we had to match their forward runs and movement and I thought we defended the box incredibly well with blocks and headers.

“It’s something we have worked on and spoken about, we have to be better at it to win games.”