Comeback kids stun Spireites

Photo: Alan Howarth

NOT THIS TIME . . . Athletic’s Carl Winchester tries a shot at goal. =

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A TRUE poacher’s goal, a slice of luck with a ricochet and three points in the bag.

To call this a perfect away day would be far from fitting. The poor Athletic fan taken away to hospital after suffering a heart attack in the stand cast a pall over the occasion.

On the field of play, though, Athletic kept striving and deserved what they ended up with.

“Let’s pretend we scored a goal,” went the song in the away end at the Proact Stadium, only a few minutes before an inspired substitution by David Dunn helped bring about the real thing.

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake – invited to trial with Athletic last season, without acceptance – had given the Spireites a lead in the first half after defensive dalliances allowed Daniel Jones the freedom of the curvy-spired town to go on the overlap and direct in a low cross which fell to the striker.

With more than five-and-a-half hours elapsing since Athletic’s last goal – Danny Philliskirk’s winner at Swindon – perhaps the gallows humour among the 445 supporters at around the hour mark here was understandable.

At the same time, though, their side have proven resolute this season – at least, away from their seemingly cursed home of SportsDirect.com Park – and so it proved again, amid the gloom and on a pitch tailor-made for water polo rather than football.

The key moment was the introduction to the action of Giorgio Rasulo on 70 minutes.

Given a big billing by Dunn in the build-up to the game as a potential firebrand in the ‘hole’ behind the striker, his run across the edge of the box in the 72nd minute was followed by a left-footed shot which Tommy Lee could not hold on to.

Dominic Poleon, pushed up as a striker in the second half, followed up as any true striker should to slam home from a tight angle.

Athletic, purposeful and determined after the half-time break when they had been ponderous and tame before it, continued to attack with some vigour.

And again, Rasulo had a hand in the match-winning goal. His lovely, cushioned lay-off in mid-air fell into Philliskirk's path. He took a touch out of his feet and elected to hit a 30-yard, skidding shot off a tricky surface. Lee misjudged it – a rare error in this fixture, for Athletic’s long-time nemesis – and the ball slipped under his body, hit a post and rebounded off his back and into the net.

There was no return for Chesterfield, who slipped to a fifth home loss of the season. Frankly, after sitting back for so long in the second 45 minutes, they didn’t merit any more than they got from the game.

Athletic, without a win in the last three games before this one, didn’t start well after making two changes to the starting line-up.

With Cameron Dummigan away with Northern Ireland’s under-21s, Brian Wilson switched to centre-back and James Wilson came back into the fray after injury.

In midfield, captain Liam Kelly returned after serving a one-game ban with Ricardo Fuller making way by dropping back onto the bench.

The game took a back seat while the afflicted Athletic fan received treatment in the stand behind the goal, with fans in the area ushered away from the scene. With a minute’s silence before kick-off for the victims of the Paris attacks and co-ordinated applause early on for departed former Spireites loan goalkeeper Marton Fulop, there was an understandably muted atmosphere around the stadium.

A lack of communication led to the first goal. Dan Gardner waited an age for Jones to go past his left shoulder, but the recriminations for not tracking the run continued in Athletic defence after Ebanks-Blake had converted his cross for a seventh goal of the season.

Kelly was not far off a couple of minutes later with a 20-yard drive that deflected a yard wide of Lee’s right-hand post with the goalkeeper rooted to the spot.

But Athletic’s attacks lacked pace and intensity. The levels were upped after the interval, though, with Mark Yeates seeing two shots blocked by the body of experienced centre-back Ian Evatt inside the area.

Carl Winchester’s scuffed shot straight at Lee brought with it ironic cheers from Athletic fans after 65 minutes, as the first real attempt to find the target from their team.

But after Girogio Rasulo had been brought on for the ineffective Michael Higdon, there was soon something substantial to cheer in earnest.

Rasulo took on a Poleon flick-on, skipped across the edge of the box to out-fox a couple of defenders and hit a shot that spilled from Lee’s grasp.

Should the ’keeper have held on? He has done many times before against Athletic, but conditions were so wet it was worth a testing pot-shot or two. Here, Poleon was able to read the situation and pounce.

Chesterfield were by this stage barely able to escape their own half. Poleon was playing on pure confidence, all of a sudden, producing slick turns and runs to terrify the home defence just as he had done at Gillingham.

One spin and shot was pulled wide of goal while at the other end, Jones landed a looping cross on to the top of the crossbar. Joel Coleman appeared to have it covered, though.

Then came the winning goal. Philliskirk chanced his arm, enjoyed some good fortune and with Poleon forcing another sharp stop from Lee, Athletic saw the three points out with ease.