Chesterfield come from two goals behind to earn point against Crawley Town on emotional afternoon - report

Captains Chey Dunkley and Dion Conroy laid wreaths in the centre circle and there was a minute’s applause before kick-off.

A double from Harry McKirdy, including a penalty, put the visitors in front at the break.

But two goals in two minutes from Dylan Duffy and Armando Dobra made it 2-2 just before the whole stadium stood and applauded for Kirk in the 59th minute.

Both teams nearly won it late on in what was a breathless ending but the points were shared.

The result maintains Chesterfield’s unbeaten start in the league at home, while Crawley’s wait for their first win of the season goes on.

FIRST HALF

Chesterfield were unchanged from the win at Harrogate Town but they fell behind after nine minutes when goalkeeper Zach Hemming came rushing off his line and McKirdy nipped in ahead of him and Kyle McFadzean and rolled the ball in from a tight angle.

The Spireites got into some decent attacking positions but the closest they came was when Duffy’s curling free-kick brushed the top of the net.

The game was stop-start after that, and Crawley were not in a rush to speed things up from throw-ins and goal-kicks, much to the frustration of the home faithful.

And there was even more anger in the stadium on 36 minutes when referee Ben Toner pointed to the spot after McFadzean was judged to have barged over Ade Adeyemo in the box and McKirdy tucked away the spot-kick for his second goal of the afternoon. There were some unsavoury scenes when Crawley’s players unnecessarily celebrated in front of the Kop and Adeyemo appeared to be hit by an object, causing him to fall to the floor and he needed treatment. A warning came over the tannoy asking people not to throw ‘missiles’ on the pitch and Toner came over to the touchline to report the incident.

That anger seemed to rub-off on Chesterfield’s players, who looked fired-up towards the end of the half, but they could not halve the deficit before half-time.

SECOND HALF

McKirdy thought he had his hat-trick early after the break when he cheekily flicked in Adeyemo’s low cross but the offside flag was raised.

And that proved important as Chesterfield scored two goals in two minutes before the hour-mark when Duffy superbly curled in from the edge of the area on 56 minutes and then Dobra slammed home from Vontae Daley-Campbell’s low cross on 58. And a minute later the whole ground stood and applauded in memory of Kirk, whose picture was shown on the big screen. It felt like it was meant to be.

In response to being pegged back, former Spireites Kabongo Tshimanga and Reece Brown came on for Crawley as part of a triple change.

The momentum was very much with Chesterfield, Lee Bonis heading over from Lewis Gordon’s cross and then Bonis went close again from Ryan Stirk’s delivery.

The Blues made a triple change of their own with 20 minutes to go, with Matt Dibley-Dias one of those withdrawn after hobbling off.

Credit to Crawley, they dug deep and weathered the storm and despite losing their lead they were not settling for a point in the latter stages.

There was late drama as both teams nearly won it, Bonis forcing a good save out of Harvey Davies, before Crawley had a one-on-one from Kaheim Dixon, despite calls for offside, saved by Hemming and then Gordon cleared the danger. The decision not to raise the offside flag annoyed Paul Cook and he was booked for his protests.

Chesterfield showed great spirit to come back and maintain their unbeaten home record in the league and they would have taken a point at half-time. They did the Kirk family proud on a moving afternoon.

Chesterfield: Hemming; Daley-Campbell (Mandeville, 78), Dunkley, McFadzean, Gordon; Dibley-Dias (Naylor, 70), Stirk; Duffy (Markanday, 70), Darcy (Grigg, 70), Dobra (Lewis, 83); Bonis.

Unused subs: Boot, Fleck.