Weston dedicates Chesterfield win to hospitalised Whitbread

Martin Allen’s number two was hospitalised this week with a bleed on the brain, a situation Weston says has been keenly felt around the Proact in the days leading up to today’s 1-0 win over Braintree.

“It has been a little bit tough,” said the midfielder.

“I know Whit from a while ago, I’ve worked with him a couple of times and stayed in contact with him when we weren’t working together.

“We’ve had some good news on that lately and that’s helped the team I think.

READ THE MATCH REPORTREAD MARTIN ALLEN’S THOUGHTS“Today was for him a little bit as well.”

Weston is looking forward to the day when Whitbread can take his place next to Allen in the dugout again.

“I think he’s got to take his rest and listen to the doctors and knowing Whit he won’t want to.

“He’s great at what he does, especially working with the gaffer, those two combined are quite powerful.

“I’m looking forward to getting him back in.”

Today’s game didn’t get off to the best of starts for the Spireites, who struggled a little bit in the first half against a Braintree who set out their stall to defend in numbers.

But after the break Town improved, Weston scored and the hosts seemed to relax, controlling the game with relative ease.

“I think off the back of Tuesday we just didn’t get going, it felt a bit leggy to be honest with you, for the first bit of the game.

“We realised we had to up it, we had to make more angles for the guys on the ball, especially at the back.

“I think we did that a lot better, with a mixture of turning them as well, and running in behind.

“I think that was the difference in the second half, changing it up a bit.”

Weston’s winner came from a Marc-Antoine Fortune knock down, the midfielder running onto the ball at pace and lifting it deftly over the keeper.

“I think it was one of the better balls we played up to the striker, it gave me time to measure my run, great header from Marco and the rest just sort of slowed down,” he said.

“My second touch took it a bit too close to the keeper so that was the only thing I could have done.

“I’m happy to get the goal and more so the win.”

With nine points from a possible nine and no goals conceded, it’s been a fine start to the season for a new-look Chesterfield squad.

They won’t be allowed to relax, however, particularly with tricky visits to Barrow and Salford in the next two games.

“He won’t allow that,” said Weston.

“I’ve played in this league before and every game is tough, one way or another.

“We need to make sure we’re on top of our game and we can’t really afford to play like we did in the first half, especially against the two teams we’ve got coming up.

“We’ve got to make sure we start well.

“If we can get a couple of good results in those, it’s a really good start.”