Chesterfield climb to top of the league after victory over Barnet

Kabongo Tshimanga was on the scoresheet as Chesterfield leap-frogged opponents Barnet to go top of the National League with a 3-1 victory at the Technique Stadium.

An entertaining night of football was kickstarted just one minute into the game as Chesterfield opened the scoring courtesy of Ollie Banks.

Barnet failed to clear their lines after a Jeff King corner and the ball fell kindly to the former Barrow man who slotted home.

On 17 minutes, the away side found an equalizer, a great strike from Sean Shields.

Ben Wynter’s cross illuded the entire Spireites defence and found Shields at the back post, who took one touch inside before firing an effort past Lucas Covolan into the top-left corner.

Akwasi Asante regained the lead for the home side on 33 minutes for his third goal of the season.

Armando Dobra fizzed a cross across the face of goal, the ball was parried out by Laurie Walker but the Dutchman was there to fire in the rebound.

Barnet always looked a threat going forward and came close to equalizing once again on the stroke of half-time when Nicke Kabamba was sent through one-on-one but Lucas Covolan was out quickly to make the save.

The away side thought they’d equalized a minute later as they had the ball in the back of the net, which sent the 129 Barnet fans into pandemonium but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Barnet had their chances in the second half too as skipper Dale Gorman struck the post on 72 minutes with an effort from outside the box and when called upon, Covolan made numerous big saves in the Spireites goal.

In an end-to-end game, the Derbyshire side came close to finding a third with multiple efforts from Joe Quigley, one of which, a header which rattled the crossbar but it was the fans’ favourite who doubled their lead from the bench.

Kabongo Tshimanga was introduced into the game on 66 minutes and found the back of the net just seven minutes later, latching on the end of a Dobra through-ball and calmly sliding the ball into the bottom corner for his first goal since breaking his leg in February.

Jes Uchegbulam came off the bench to make his Chesterfield debut in the closing stages, receiving applause from the 7,094 fans in attendance as Paul Cook’s men saw out the game to pick up all three points.

Barnet certainly played their part in a cracking game of football, coming close on multiple occasions but it was the Spireites’ cutting edge that got them over the line.

Chesterfield travel to Altrincham on Monday while Barnet’s next fixture is at home to Eastleigh.

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