Chesterfield recalled Peter Leven for the visit of Dagenham & Redbridge this afternoon, leaving Jamie Winter on the bench.
Leven put down a marker for the sort of performance he would enjoy by spraying a lovely 40-yard pass to Lowry with less than a minute on the clock. The Spireites were dominant from the kick-off and deservedly took the lead on 8 minutes. Lester chipped a neat pass into the path of Lowry and a corner resulted; DOWNES rose at the back post to head Bastians' flag kick into the visitors' net.
The Daggers won a corner off Kovacs on 11 and Griffiths shot narrowly over from Kovacs' clearing header but little was seen from them as an attacking force during the first 45. For most of the time they joined the crowd in watching the home side put together some neat moves. Lester was often at the hub of these, dropping deep from his marker to move the ball quickly to the wings. On 13 he laid it wide left to Bastians, who took it on and shot fiercely, but across the goal and out.
Dag & Red probed a little after going behind but seemed unable to raise their game to the level needed to get back into it. Chesterfield turned up the heat a little and, on 26, Bastians was bundled over while chasing a ball into the visitors' penalty area, but the referee waved away appeals from the men in blue. Leven played Lester through the offside trap with a fine ball on 33 and Jack took the ball to the keeper; he dummied Roberts, leaving him on his backside, and turned to tuck it in but found two Dagenham men racing back to cover the line. He turned back but Roberts was up again and was able to block the eventual shot with his chest.
A Bastians throw on 41 was taken into the box by Robertson, who shot narrowly wide. Picken and Rooney exchanged passes and fed Lester, but he was tackled as he shaped to shoot with the goal looming large.
This was probably Chesterfield's most dominant half this season, possession-wise, and the quality of some of their approach play was well above League Two standard. The defence was rarely tested but showed itself sufficient whenever the visitors tried to build moves. Through poor finishing and good goalkeeping, however, Chesterfield went in only one goal to the good, and the visitors' manager thus had something to rally his team round.
The second half started as the first had finished. Lester's cleverly-weighted pass allowed Bastians to race clear down the left and shoot: Roberts flung himself to his left to palm the ball narrowly wide.
The Dagenham defender Smith put a free header over from a corner as the visitors showed signs of getting back into the game. Warnings were not heeded and when Robertson lost the ball on halfway with everyone in the Dagenham half, Benson was put through with the Freedom of the Borough to run at Roche before wrong-footing him and rolling the ball home, on 56.
Chesterfield still pressed forward. Rooney and Lester exchanged passes on 58 and Lester forced another good save out of Roberts. In their anxiety to regain the lead, though, the Spireites piled forward, lost their shape and the defence became nervous. Robertson, who was suffering from uncharacteristic uncertainty, was booked on 61 for pulling his man back when he threatened to break through.
Ward replaced Rooney on 62. Leven's powerful shot was blocked for a corner on 63 and the same player put another peach of a ball onto Lester's feet a few yards out from goal, but Roberts was on top of the ball before Lester could get a shot away. Ward set Lowry free down the right and he found Lester, but the visitors threw bodies in the way and the forward's shot was blocked for a corner. The home side still threw everything at their visitors but, with twenty-one players heaped into the Kop goalmouth, the threat of a breakaway was constant. Allison replaced Bastians on 82 but by this time Dagenham looked more likely to nick a game that should have been beyond them by half time. Allison saw a shot from a Lester lay-off well saved and Picken shot narrowly over on the stroke of full-time.
Another home match thus ended with a disappointing scoreline as The Spireites slipped back out of an automatic promotion spot. Sixteen goal attempts sounds impressive and points the way to the quality of our approach play, especially before the hour mark, but the total of six efforts on target was only two more than that of the visitors, who looked dead and buried, in competitive terms, by the interval. That single-goal lead was always vulnerable to a deflection or a dodgy penalty but in the end Dagenham didn't need such luck; after instilling some self-belief into his troops at halftime, it was a simple break from their own half that saw John Still's men share the spoils. For all the early domination Chesterfield's only goal came from a set piece, and this fact - an inability to score from open play today - cost them all three points since, by the time the Daggers got theirs, it should only have been a consolation.
