It was a case of too little, too late for Lincoln City on Saturday afternoon as they went down 2-1 to Chesterfield in League Two.
A late Ben Hutchinson goal, his first for the Imps, was not enough to salvage a point for the away side after the Spireites scored a goal in each half to put themselves out of sight.
Mustapha Carayol was handed a surprise start for Lincoln. The former Torquay winger had been suffering from injury recently and had not trained in the run-up to the game. He was expected to the fill the role of the unavailable Albert Jarrett, whose guile just behind Hutchinson inspired the Imps to victory against Gillingham a fortnight before.
But it was Chesterfield’s makeshift central defender Dwayne Mattis who gave his side the lead on 36 minutes after lax marking from City allowed him to direct the ball goalwards with a glancing header.
The Spireites had a goal disallowed on the hour mark, but did double their lead soon after. Soon after City manager Chris Sutton had switched to a 4-4-2 formation, Jack Lester chipped the ball over the Imps defence, leaving Craig Davies to finish and give the home side a comfortable cushion.
A visibly frustrated Ian Pearce was then forced off the field with what seemed to be a back injury—a possible consequence of the veteran defender playing regular first team football over the past few weeks.
With little time remaining, Celtic loanee Hutchinson managed to give Lincoln hope but his goal turned out to be little more than a consolation effort.
Barnet are City’s next opponents in the league and they beat Cheltenham 3-1 at Underhill on Saturday.