Unlikely duo help Chesterfield back to winning ways against Accrington Stanley

Here are some of the talking points from the game...

BOOOOOT!

Out of all the changes that Paul Cook could have made, Ryan Boot for Zach Hemming would not have been an obvious one for a lot of people. Hemming has had a strong season, is rated as the best in the league by the coaching staff and it was not long ago that he was mentioned as a player of the year contender. Boot, meanwhile, had not started a league game all season. So it was a huge gamble but it paid off as Boot made some important saves at 0-1 and recorded a clean sheet. There were no dramas and his distribution drew praise from the away dugout. He took his chance and you would have to say he did enough to keep his place.

WILL WIN’S IT

Another one of the big selection calls saw Will Dickson come in for his first start in two months. And the young striker grabbed his opportunity, scoring the winner in the second-half when he applied the finish to Tom Naylor’s cross. He was up against experienced and giant defender Ferrand Rawson and, as much as we can’t claim that Dickson got the better of him throughout, he did escape his clutches for the winner. With Will Grigg out for the season with a hamstring injury, Dickson has a chance to get more minutes than he has done since January.

MUCH-NEEDED

It wasn’t a sparkling performance but it didn’t need to be. It was all about winning. Chesterfield started slowly, they looked a bit fragile and low on confidence after the heavy defeat to Oldham. There were periods of this game when the prospect of Town creating something from open play looked unlikely. You could easily have seen them slipping to a 1-0 defeat. But they grew it into, ended the first-half strongly and had more control after the break. Lee Bonis could have made things more comfortable but he hit the post from close-range but thankfully it did not matter.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Chesterfield stay eighth, outside of the play-offs on goal difference. It was important that they did win because everyone around them collected three points so they could have found themselves further drift. The last seven fixtures are a mix of teams in the lower reaches and some potentially season-defining matches against play-off rivals Grimsby, Crewe and Swindon.

TWO WEEKS OFF

Chesterfield don’t play for 13 days now after their game against Grimsby Town was postponed because of international call-ups for the Mariners. You could argue that you would want another match to try to build momentum. But a break could also give them a chance to reset, rest any niggles and take a breather ahead of the last seven matches as they aim to get in the play-offs.

Chesterfield: Boot; Curtis, McFadzean, Swinkels, Owolabi-Belewu (Donacien, 90); Naylor (Mandeville, 90), Stirk, Braybrooke; Markanday, Berry (Dobra, 85); Dickson (Bonis, 70).