Chesterfield climb to fourth after impressive away win at Southend United

Laurence Maguire scored his first goal in almost a year when he headed in Liam Mandeville’s corner on 14 minutes to give the Spireites the lead.

Ryan Colclough continued his rich vein of form with another goal on 65 minutes from the edge of the box but Harry Cardwell pulled one back just two minutes later when he raced through one-on-one.

Town came under some pressure but they held out for their second successive away victory to get their season back on track after a poor run of form.

The win, along with defeats for Barnet and Woking, means a third-placed finish is back within their grasp.

Paul Cook named an unchanged line-up from the first win in 10 against Gateshead on Saturday. New signing Andrew Dallas was on the bench, as was Jeff King, with Brandon Horton and Danny Rowe dropping out of the squad altogether. Armando Dobra remained out with a hamstring problem.

For Southend, goalkeeper Blondy Nna Noukeu was recalled on the morning of the game by his parent club Stoke City which meant Steve Arnold came in. Striker Cardwell, once a transfer target for the Spireites, returned from injury to start and score. The Shrimpers, still battling ongoing ownership and financial issues, had seen talented defender Kacper Lopata walk away from the club for free in the last week after not being paid his wages.

Chesterfield deservedly led at half-time after a very hard-working performance.

The Spireites have been guilty of conceding the first goal far too often in games in the last two months but they stopped that happening here as Maguire headed them in front on 14 minutes after powering in from Mandeville’s corner.

Town had been the better side and they came close to doubling their lead on the half-hour mark when a free-flowing counter-attack resulted in Jesurun Uchegbulam’s strike being deflected wide for a corner. Moments later, Paul McCallum crashed a header against the crossbar after meeting Mandeville’s cross at the far post.

This had been an accomplished away display and the Blues did not look like a team who had only won one of their previous 10. They had been physically up to the task and had looked threatening from Mandeville’s delivery from set-pieces.

Down the other end, Ross Fitzsimons had made a comfortable save from Callum Powell but he made a much better stop from Jack Bridge after the ball came at him through a crowd of bodies at speed.

Chesterfield have been the victim of plenty of counter-attack goals this season but they were the ones looking dangerous on the break in the second-half.

Southend had a bit more purpose in their play in the final third but the closest they came to equalising was from a corner as Gus Scott-Morriss headed onto the roof of the net from Bridge’s delivery.

The game burst into life midway the second-half when an empathic finish from Colclough from the edge of the box, his third in as many games, put the Spireites in a commanding position.

But they did not have a two-goal lead for long as two minutes Cardwell halved the deficit after beating the offside trap and finishing past Fitzsimons one-on-one.

Chesterfield tried to stop the home side’s momentum and switched to a 4-1-4-1 formation with Tim Akinola sitting in front of the defence and new signing Dallas on the left flank.

And those changes did the trick as the Spireites steadied the ship and saw the game out in what had been an impressive team performance at Roots Hall.