Chris Morgan praises Trophy goalscorers, hopes for quiet transfer deadline day

Chesterfield’s assistant manager said Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Kristian Dennis did what was expected of them as the Spireites won 2-1 at the Proact.

For Ebanks-Blake it was a first start of the season, having fallen down the pecking order at the Proact.

“I thought Sylvan was excellent, he led the line and played with a real intensity,” said Morgan.

“He’s not had a lot of game time of late so he probably tired a little bit late on.

“He showed a real good attitude and did what he does best, got a goal. He could have had a hat-trick.”

Morgan insisted the management team had not abandoned the experienced striker.

“He’s never really been out of the reckoning, he’s always been in the group, always trained,” he said.

“In pre-season and early part of the season a couple of other boys on the bench were a little bit in front of him.”

And Dennis’ name on the scoresheet was no surprise to Morgan.

“Kristian does that, he played at Matlock, similar sort of game to tonight, took a chance to impress and got a goal. He’s a goalscorer. That’s what he’s there to do.”

The EFL Trophy group stage game, which was watched by fewer than 1,000 at the Proact, was seen by the Spireites management as a chance to involve some of the youngsters at the club.

Morgan said: “It was a good opportunity for some of the younger players to get experience in the stadium in front of a crowd.

“It’s always good to get the young players involved, they’re always knocking on the door and it’s an opportunity to learn a bit about them.”

And he praised the opponents, who despite going down to 10 men in the first half gave Chesterfield a tough battle right to the end.

“I think everyone forgot second half we were playing against 10 men, I thought Wolves were excellent.

“We knew Scott (Sellars) would have his lads at it and they’ve got some good young players there.

“We knew it would be a test so we had to have a balance between experience and the younger lads.”

One player who only featured in the first half was Gboly Ariyibi, the subject of so much transfer speculation.

Morgan said there was no special significance in his withdrawal at the interval.

He said: “We had always planned on giving Dan Gardner and Gboly half a game but things change, Jon Nolan tired a little bit, felt a bit of tightness so Dan had to play the full game.

“Both widemen have started every league game so we wanted to give them half a game.”

With clubs like Barnsley and Brentford said to be very keen to land the winger before tomorrow night’s transfer deadline, Morgan is hoping for an uneventful Wednesday.

“Danny and I will probably be sat watching Sky Sports like everyone else, watching everything come up.

“Hopefully it is quiet.

“If people are making bids for our players it says we’re doing the right thing and producing good players. If you’re producing good players you expect people to keep an eye on them.

“We can’t control them. If bids come we have to deal with it.”