'The lads who played tonight did themselves no harm' - Chesterfield no.2 reflects on EFL Trophy win

The Spireites’ 5-3 win over Manchester City U21s was achieved with a totally different line-up to the one which beat Oldham Athletic in League Two at the weekend.

Players like Rafiq Lamptey, Kiano Dyer, Junior Eccleston and others did well in dealing with City’s team of prospects and the goals were spread between Joel Randall, Fraser Bryden, Chey Dunkley, Junior Eccleston and Louie Marsh.

"There were so many positives from the night and the supporters who turned up left entertained and with a win,” said Webb.

"It was a chance for players to put in a performance where they could knock on the manager’s door come Thursday and Friday and they have certainly done that. Whether the team changes or not we will wait and see but those lads who played tonight certainly did themselves no harm.”

Chesterfield had senior reinforcements on the bench should they have been needed.

“It was a good game, very entertaining,” said Webb. “There was a youthful energy to the team sprinkled with a bit of experience with people like Chey Dunkley and Tom Pearce and Tom Naylor. They are good professionals and they carried themselves well against a good young team from arguably the best Academy in the country.

"It was also great for our young lads to go up against other young lads who are from a much higher scale.”

Both sides moved the ball well on the night and the ability to hurt each other was reflected in the goals tally.

Whether manager Paul Cook is tempted to shuffle his pack for Saturday’s visit of York will soon become clear but the Group D opener was a reminder of the talent in reserve.

Added Webb: "We have a lot of different types of player, not just a carbon copy of the type they are replacing, so that’s a little bit different and refreshing on the pitch and you saw that tonight.”