Spireites Suffer Narrow Defeat at Lincoln.

Lincoln sealed a 2-1 victory in this pre-season friendly courtesy of two smartly executed goals from former Spireite Jordan Burrow and Alan Power on Saturday afternoon. Chesterfield did manage to pull a goal back only moments after conceding a second, but failed to grab an all-important equaliser in the time that followed.

With only 15 minutes on the clock, Burrow put the Imps in front with a close range finish under Chesterfield goalkeeper Tommy Lee. The hosts’ Tom Miller spurned a fantastic opportunity on the six-yard line after failing to connect with a driven free-kick from the left-hand side.

Half an hour into this contest, the Imps doubled their advantage with a curled effort from Power that left Lee with little chance of stopping it. Only one minute had passed before Chesterfield halved the deficit, as Charlie Dawes and Romuald Boco led an attack down the right-hand side before a low and deadly finish from the former.

Luke Clarke thought he’d levelled the scoreline with a strong finish past Lincoln goalkeeper Paul Farman, although the linesman’s flag was already raised for off-side. On the stroke of half-time, the Imps’ appeals of hand-ball inside the area by a member of the Chesterfield defence were waved away by the referee.

Wholesale changes were made at the break by the Spireites and an increase in tempo was clearly evident. A quick free-kick released a Lincoln counter-attack but Daniel Jones reacted quickest to intercept and retrieve possession.

Eoin Doyle broke free of the defence before being denied by a magnificent one-handed save from Farman. A neat through-ball found its way into the path of Tendayi Darikwa, although he failed to hit the target with a curled effort from the right-hand side.

With just under ten minutes left on the clock, Kegan Everington could have restored his side’s two-goal lead but failed to capitalise on an open goal and fired the ball high and wide of the target. Dan Gardner came closest to netting an equaliser in the final moments of this contest with a volleyed effort that crashed against the post and ultimately away from danger.