The story of the match as Chesterfield beat Weymouth to move into National League play-offs

The deadlock was broken on 37 minutes when the ball fell kindly to Whelan in the box following a free-kick by Martin Smith, the midfielder then swivelled and fired it through a crowd of bodies to give the Spireites a much-deserved lead.

Town had started the game very brightly, Akwasi Asante had an early chance blocked before Whelan fired over from the edge of the box on two minutes.

Soon after Asante almost opened the scoring but his shot from 20 yards was pushed onto the post by Weymouth goalkeeper Ethan Ross.

The hosts had to make a change midway through the first-half after Laurence Maguire hobbled off with a hamstring injury and was replaced by Josef Yarney.

The opening 45 became scrappy after that but Chesterfield still looked comfortable.

Weymouth made two changes at the break as they tried to get back into the game and the visitors almost found the equaliser when Pierre Fonkeu headed against the underside of the bar but it bounced out.

Carline had a chance to double Chesterfield’s lead with 12 minutes to go after he was picked out by substitute Liam Mandeville but he scuffed his shot.

Mandeville then had a good chance to seal the points with six minutes left but he fired wide.

The Terras pushed for an equaliser in the remaining few minutes without creating anything clear-cut and the Blues held on for their third win on the bounce.