Surprise setback in Chesterfield's promotion push

A serious blow to their promotion chances was suffered by Chesterfield after a surprise 2-1 defeat in the Midland Men's Hockey League's Second Division.
Chesterfields goalscorer Damian Jarzembowski in action during the surprise defeat at Coalville Town. (PHOTO BY: Elenor Morgan).Chesterfields goalscorer Damian Jarzembowski in action during the surprise defeat at Coalville Town. (PHOTO BY: Elenor Morgan).
Chesterfields goalscorer Damian Jarzembowski in action during the surprise defeat at Coalville Town. (PHOTO BY: Elenor Morgan).

Chesterfield dropped from second to fourth in the table as a result of their slip-up at Coalville Town, who were 21 points behind them in the bottom three. And skipper Christian Battye had no excuses to offer ahead of this weekend’s crunch clash with fellow high-fliers, Boots.

“We simply weren’t good enough,” said Battye. “Coalville more than matched us and deserved to win. Just because we had a good result the previous week didn’t give us the right to turn teams over the next.

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“The match against Boots this Saturday is now massive. It’s pretty much a must-win to get our season going again.”

Not even the 44th goal of a remarkable season for Polish striker Damian Jarzembowski could spare Chesterfield’s blushes. He slotted home after exchanging passes with player/coach Ben Lamb, at the end of a well-executed routine, to give the visitors a 1-0 lead at half-time.

But it never looked enough in what was a finely-balanced encounter. Coalville were well organised and more than matched the intensity of Battye’s boys, restricting Jarzembowski to a limited number of chances, most of which were foiled by goalkeeper Paul Glover.

In a scrappy second period, man-of-the-match Danny Dunn put his body on the line more than once to protect the narrow lead. But Coalville eventually found a way past ‘keeper Matt Lloyd to level and although Joe Morton had a shot blocked on the line at the other end after combining well with Jarzembowski, the hosts always looked more likely to find a winner.

The goal duly came with just minutes remaining via a deflected shot that left Lloyd unable to do anything except watch the ball loop high into the net.

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