The worlds’ eyes are firmly fixed upon the top of the National League. Wrexham, and Notts County have allured the media and football fans up and down the country as their battle for top spot and that one crucial automatic promotion spot has gotten them both to over 100 points in a truly unprecedented season. But that’s not the only story in the National League. The fight for third place between Chesterfield and Woking is also going down to the wire. It may sound strange to some, but 3^rd place is a great prize in the National League playoff system because it sends whoever gets it straight into the playoff semi-finals with no need for those tricky quarters.

That 3^rd place spot was firmly in the minds of all the Spireites that went to watch them play playoff hopefuls Eastleigh on 15^th of April.

Chesterfield certainly weren’t good enough in the first half. They were sloppy, slow and uncreative and they were punished after just 10 minutes. Eastleigh put a high ball into the box from a corner which was won by an Eastleigh man. Striker Kairo Mitchell managed to latch onto the ball after Chesterfield failed to deal with it properly and he smashed the ball home. Mitchell, a former Chesterfield player, proceeded to celebrate in front of his former fans, cupping his ear to the kop and taunting the blues.

Eastleigh played well in the first half, their structure was difficult to break down and they played together as a unit very well. However, once they got their first, their gameplan changed slightly. That goal was the point at which Eastleigh decided to go down the unfortunate route of rampant time wasting. You could see it from their goal celebration, the whole side decided to very slowly, and very particularly form a huddle and have a chat- a charade that was acted out for only one reason. Three players in particular were quite shameless with their antics. Goalkeeper Joe McDonnell took to the usual ploy of taking an age positioning, and repositioning, the ball at every goal kick he took throughout the match. Midfielder JJ McKiernan, Eastleigh’s number 16, tried to deceive the referee multiple times by throwing himself onto the pitch and clutching his screaming face at the slightest contact. Finally, there was number 9 Danny Whitehall. The striker demonstrated a laughable dive in Chesterfield’s penalty area and remonstrated with the referee the whole time he was on the pitch. It was a shame Eastleigh thought they had to resort to such tactics, they proved during the match that they were a good side that could play some good football.

Chesterfield, however, were not able to react to Eastleigh’s game and the side from the South grabbed a second goal after 33 minutes. Yet again, another former Chesterfield player, Charlie Carter, came back to haunt his old club as he capitalised on a loose ball that was spilled by Spireites ‘Keeper Ross Fitzsimons. He did well to smash the ball home. Cue another celebration of ear-cupping from Carter- strange because he was a favourite during his time at the club and cue another group huddle just to waste a little bit more time.

Boos were heard from Chesterfield fans at halftime as their players went down the tunnel two goals down. It was not difficult to empathise with the frustration, their side had put up little fight against their opposition in such a crucial match.

In the second half it looked like Eastleigh had decided to back off. They obviously believed their two-goal cushion would be enough to see out the game and decided to focus on getting men behind the ball to defend. Chesterfield failed to capitalise on this change for a long time- numerous good chances were wasted at the final moment despite some good build up play that managed to break down the stern Eastleigh defence.

It took until the 72^nd minute for the Spireites to make a breakthrough. A superb string of passes ended with Liam Mandeville on the ball, who then crossed it into the box. The cross was met by the head of Ryan Colclough and was fired into the right side of the goal.

Eastleigh had a chance to regain their two-goal lead on 82 minutes, substitute Vincent Harper found himself one-on-one with Ross Fitzsimons but squandered his opportunity when he tried to chip the ball over the ‘keeper. Fitzsimons stayed on his feet and comfortably caught the ball.

Colclough, who had been great on the left wing the whole game, scored an equaliser for Chesterfield on 89 minutes. Once again, he latched onto a cross from the right side of the pitch, this time from Jeff King, and managed to poke the ball home from close range. Chesterfield had such success attacking from crosses into the box it makes you question why they didn’t focus on wing play for the whole match instead of slowly trying to forge a way through the middle of the pitch- especially with the quality that they possess on both sides of the pitch.

You could feel in the air that Chesterfield was not yet finished. Eastleigh didn’t have enough time to react- they were still parking the bus- and Chesterfield had the bit between their teeth. Five minutes of injury time was announced. On 94 minutes Andy Dallas got the ball, turned past his man, pushed the ball in front of him and just before the edge of Eastleigh’s penalty box he took his chance. He fired the ball into the bottom-left corner, past the outstretched arms of McDonnell.

Pandemonium.

As Eastleigh’s players sat there, stunned by what had just happened, Chesterfield went crazy. Jeff King was celebrating in the stands, Gary Roberts ran onto the pitch from his technical area, Ross Fitzsimons ran the length of the pitch and jumped on the pile-on with Dallas on the bottom. Over six-and-a-half thousand Spireites shouted themselves hoarse, arms pumped the air in euphoric jubilation, some probably cupped their ears in the direction of Mitchell and Carter.

Their last-gasp winner sent Chesterfield into 3^rd place, and a Woking loss later on that day meant that they would stay there for the time being. There are still crucial games to play, and Chesterfield must win if they want to stay in that important 3^rd place, but their fight, their passion, their grit that they showed to come back against Eastleigh, against the odds, shows that they might have what it takes to carry it on. And they might, just might, have what it takes to go all the way and win at Wembley on the 13^th of May.