Report by North Derbyshire Radio Senior Football Correspondent Ben Smith
Chesterfield’s chances of crashing the League Two play-off places took another hit on Tuesday, as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Gillingham at the SMH Group Stadium.
Will Grigg got the home side level after Elliott Nevitt had opened the scoring early on, but a potentially season-prolonging second would ultimately prove elusive for the Spireites.
Paul Cook’s side came into this game in hand knowing anything less than three points would make their route into the top seven a rather remote one, with things taking on even greater significance after a 4-0 drubbing at Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.
That result prompted the Blues boss to make five changes to his starting XI, a call that was almost rewarded inside the opening minute as the recalled Dylan Duffy saw an effort cleared off the line.
It would be the visitors who ultimately struck first on 14 minutes, however, with Nevitt expertly guiding the ball into the bottom corner of Ryan Boot’s goal.
And that would be the only major action of a first 45 interrupted by what many in the home crowd perceived to be ‘game management’ by Gareth Ainsworth’s Gills.
Whatever their view, it was a game plan that was succeeding in its goal of frustrating the hosts, who could have fallen further behind as Aaron Rowe and Joe Gbode both went close after the restart, the former forcing a strong save from Boot.
Recognising the crunch nature of the fixture, Cook opted again to shuffle his pack with an aggressive triple change, introducing Jamie Grimes, Armando Dobra and Ryan Colclough on 69 minutes.
Eight minutes later, the latter of that trio would play a key role in levelling proceedings as he provided an enticing cross for Grigg to fire home his first goal since returning from a lengthy injury lay-off last month.
And Colclough could even have completed the comeback shortly after, but he wasn’t quite able to keep his effort within the confines of the woodwork.
That would ultimately prove the closest either side came to a winning goal, with a point leaving Chesterfield six adrift of the play-offs with just five further games to play.
Attention will now turn to finishing the season as strong as possible, beginning with another home fixture against Fleetwood on Saturday afternoon.
