Jeff King celebrates new Chesterfield contract with goal in win to end Boreham Wood's unbeaten away run

Jeff King celebrated signing his new contract this week with a free-kick in the first-half, his third goal in as many matches and his sixth of the season, making him the Spireites’ top scorer so far this season.

After the break Kabongo Tshimanga, facing his former club, had a penalty saved after Darren Oldaker was brought down by visiting goalkeeper Nathan Ashmore, who redeemed himself by diving low to his right to deny his old team-mate.

But Oldaker doubled the lead with 17 minutes remaining, finding the top corner with another free-kick, via a deflection.

Branden Horton was shown a second yellow card late on which means he will now be suspended for the home match against Gateshead on Tuesday night.

Town climb to third in the table after Solihull Moors were held at Gateshead, but Notts County and Wrexham both won, meaning the gap to the top remains eight points.

After three successive defeats, the Blues have now gone three unbeaten collecting seven points this week.

Boreham had not lost away from home this season and were only one place and one point behind Chesterfield before kick-off so this was a handy win against a promotion contender.

Paul Cook made three changes from the draw at York City in midweek as George Cooper, Liam Mandeville and Armando Dobra replaced Ollie Banks (hamstring), Jesurun Uchegbulam and Akwasi Asante. Jack Clarke and Joe Quigley made the bench after returning from injury.

Boreham Wood were unchanged from their draw at Dagenham and Redbridge. Former Spireite Will Evans started, as did Chesterfield fan Zak Brunt, who is on loan from Sheffield United.

Chesterfield chose this game as their Remembrance fixture and there were 150 service personnel in attendance. The Last Post was played before kick-off as tributes were paid to our fallen heroes.

It was a tight first 45 minutes with not many chances for either team.

Town’s best opportunity to open the scoring came just after the 20-minute mark as Cooper volleyed over from about 12 yards from Horton’s deflected cross following intricate build-up play.

The Spireites’ opener came after 32 minutes as King’s free-kick from near the edge of the area curled over the Boreham wall and went in off the post. The visitors were not happy with the awarding of the free-kick, which was given in favour of Tshimanga against his former club. The goal was King’s sixth of the season and his third in as many matches, including successive free-kicks.

The Blues finished the half the stronger side as Mike Jones, King, Horton and Dobra all had shots either blocked or go wide.

For Boreham, Femi Ilesanmi had their best chance at nil-nil but he swivelled and blasted over from about 10 yards after a corner fell to him.

Before that, Jamie Grimes had made two good blocks to deny shots on goal.

It had been a closely-fought first-half, something nobody would have been surprised about after previous meetings.

Chesterfield received a let-off in the opening minutes of the second-half as Brunt met a cross on the volley first time but it crashed against the crossbar.

Up the other end, Dobra managed to get a shot off from close-range despite being surrounded but Ashmore parried and Tshimanga could not poke in the rebound.

Then came Town’s big chance to double their lead from the penalty spot around the hour-mark. Oldaker made a run down the middle and Ashmore brought him down and referee Michael Barlow pointed to the spot and booked Ashmore. But the visiting keeper, booed by the Chesterfield fans as he always is, guessed correctly and got down low to his right to deny Tshimanga.

Spireites supporters will have been wondering if that miss was going to come back and haunt them but they did not need to worry for long.

With 17 minutes remaining, they doubled their lead from another free-kick, this time Oldaker did the honours, via a slight nick off the Boreham wall, which found the top corner.

For once, it was a fairly comfortable ending to the game for Chesterfield, who saw Quigley make his return from injury with 10 minutes remaining. However, Horton was given his marching orders late on after collecting his second yellow card, which means he will be suspended for Gateshead on Tuesday.