Chesterfield assistant manager Danny Webb admitted that losing the 2023 National League play-off final to Notts County had given his side an extra incentive ahead of Saturday’s 2-1 League Two victory at Meadow Lane.
Two years after losing to their high-flying opponents at Wembley, Tom Naylor’s 88th-minute finish fired the visitors to a hard-fought victory over Stuart Maynard’s side.
County substitute Will Jarvis’ first goal since arriving from Shelbourne appeared to have earned a draw for the hosts following Aribim Pepple’s opener, before Naylor’s late winner clinched maximum points.
The result meant the hosts failed to climb back into the automatic promotion places following Doncaster’s draw with Crewe, earlier in the day.
Webb said: “That’s exorcised a few ghosts. Football is all about creating memories and we’ve done that out there.
“They beat us on the biggest stage possible and I’d be lying if I tried to pretend that hadn’t given us a little something extra coming into this.
“For a while now, they’ve always got one over on us and so it’s nice that, for once, the shoe is on the other foot.
“Listen, they came out on top at Wembley and fair play to them. We’d swap their league position in their league with our one in a heartbeat. Full credit to them.
“Notts are one of the best teams in this division and they are certainties to get a play-off spot. Maybe even more than that.
“I definitely thought we deserved it though. The lads did great and you could tell our fans – who were brilliant by the way – really appreciated it.”
Webb added: “Notts are where they are for a reason. When they came back into it and got their goal you thought ‘hello, here we go’. But all of our boys stuck to their tasks brilliantly and did what they had to do. That was great to see.”
Maynard, whose Magpies have now lost three of their last four outings, entered the match unbeaten in their last five meetings with Paul Cook’s team.
He saw David McGoldrick and Alassana Jatta both go close before the break, before Pepple pounced.
Maynard said: “Obviously we’re disappointed. We had the chances to put ourselves in control and, at the end of the day, it’s all about taking chances.
“If we had been more clinical and a little bit more ruthless then we’d have been in a much better position. Ultimately, that has cost us.
“What we’ve got to do now is bounce back and show the character the lads have done all season. We can’t allow ourselves to get down or frustrated by it.
“We’ll look at what we did wrong, what we did well and what we can do better. We’ll then put that into practice and continue to work hard.
“There’s still so much to play for and we’re in a position that a lot of other sides would love to be in. So we have to get straight back to it and look to make the most of that.
“The lads gave everything, though and credit to Chesterfield for taking their chances.”
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