Gillingham tweaked tactics for 'good side' Chesterfield - opposition verdict
Gillingham manager Mark Bonner said they tweaked their approach in an attempt to stifle Chesterfield's threat.
The Gills, who played half an hour with 10-men, won 1-0, but the unlucky Spireites, who had Chey Dunkley sent off late on, hit the woodwork three times and had a goal ruled out and could have claimed the victory themselves.
Bonner said: "It is a massive result. It is a brilliant win for us.
"We had a horrible start in the first few minutes, we were honking. After that, we got going a bit, scored the goal, brilliant execution.
"They are a good side. We did some work on our pressing in the week and we did something different today to stop them getting total control of the game and we did that relatively well in the first half.”
Darren Oldaker, Armando Dobra and Tom Naylor all hit the woodwork, while Dilan Markanday had a goal ruled out for offside, on a day Chesterfield could have scored three or four and should have at least claimed a point.
On playing 30 minutes with 10-men after Max Ehmer received two yellows, Bonner added: "It was really hard. When the sending off happened, don't get me wrong they didn't create a huge amount of chances, I thought our work ethic to stop them doing that was amazing, but they have come close a few times today, hit the woodwork three times, and it was carnage for the one at the end when it hit the crossbar.”
Chesterfield are back in action away at Lincoln City in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night.