'Only a matter of time' - Chesterfield earn draw against Oldham Athletic but have to wait for promotion

A win, combined with dropped points for Barnet, would have secured promotion on Saturday. In the end, the Bees lost at Woking, but the Spireites didn’t do their bit, but they now only need one more point to get over the line.

Town trailed 2-0 midway through the first-half but were level just after the hour at Boundary Park and they had to settle for a point.

Coach Danny Webb said that it was ‘only a matter of time’ before they would be officially promoted.

On the performance, he said: “It got better as it went on. Bailey Hobson’s goal was massive for us. It allowed us to get in at half-time and regroup. The gaffer said his bit. The introduction of the subs helped. At 2-2 we still made life difficult for ourselves by giving the ball away knowing they wanted to counter. A 2-0 down and you are not playing very well, to come back to get to 2-2 and maybe should have won the game is a sign of a team who is hopefully getting promoted.”

Oldham took advantage of Town’s high defensive line all game but Webb said their problems were caused by something else.

He explained: “I think whichever player it was in front of the back four they kept giving the ball away unnecessarily. Sometimes the centre-halves get a bit of stick but as a team we have not kept the ball well enough which has meant the defence has been facing their own goal more than they should have been.”

The Latics took the lead when Harry Tyrer was judged to have brought down Andy Dallas in the box and James Norwood scored the resulting penalty. The Spireites netted a penalty of their own in the second 45 which Hobson won after being fouled and Joe Quigley tucked it away. Webb felt both decisions were correct.

He said: “They are moaning about Bailey Hobson’s but I think it was a penalty. He got the wrong side of his man and his heels were clipped. Fair play to the linesman for showing some courage and giving the penalty right in front of the Oldham fans.”

On Hobson, who scored his first goal on his first league start for the club, Webb said: “Bailey has had to be patient. He scored a goal and won a penalty so a big pat on the back for him. The gaffer said he just wanted to give him a chance. He wanted him to run and be a nuisance and he did that. His attitude has been great.”

Chesterfield opted for a 4-3-2-1 formation with Hobson and Michael Jacobs either side of Quigley. On why that was, Webb said: “We just thought that the last two times we have played against a front-two away from home teams have got in and we have not had that extra bit of security around the centre-halves. At 2-0 down that was obviously working really well! But sometimes you do things and they don’t always go to plan. But despite the tactics and the formation we just kept giving the ball away really poorly. That was the manager’s main point before and after the game. We have had a great season but today, especially in the first-half, we allowed Oldham to gain the upper-hand. We made life more difficult for ourselves than necessary.”