Kristian Dennis netted twice and a late Ian Evatt header confirmed a 3-1 win for Rai Simons and his Chesterfield teammates as they defeated Matlock Town away from home in pre-season.
The result ensured that Chesterfield lifted the Autoworld Stoneacre Cup at the DCJ Group Insurance Arena.
Ryan Fulton was in goal for Chesterfield and there was a place in midfield for on-trial midfielder Ryan Hall. With Ched Evans still injured, Simons partnered Dennis in attack.
The Matlock side included Danny Wilson’s son Laurie in midfield.
Dennis had an early half-chance but was unable to direct his header on target.
Simons threatened to find a way through after winning possession and busting into the area but found his route to goal blocked.
Just before the half-hour mark, Hall made way with Ritchie Humphreys taking his place.
Jay O’Shea had an effort blocked after finding some space on the edge of the area.
The breakthrough came ten minutes before the break when Simons advanced into the right-hand side of the area and squared to O’Shea who played the ball on to Dennis and the striker provided a far-post finish.
O’Shea then teed up Connor Dimaio inside the area, but the midfielder’s shot struck a Matlock player.
Dennis scored his and Chesterfield’s second goal of the night, meeting Dan Gardner’s cross from the right with a glancing, near-post header.
Early in the second half, there was a change in attack when two-goal Dennis was withdrawn with young Ricky German taking his place.
Humphreys tried a speculative long-range effort which cleared the bar.
There was another substitution shortly afterwards when Curtis Morrison took over from Dan Gardner.
Simons found space on the right but was unable to pick out O’Shea with his low cross.
Chesterfield made another change when Derek Daly was sent on in place of Dan Jones.
The hosts pulled a goal back in the 67th minute when Ted Cribley beat Fulton with a fine shot from just inside the area.
Two further changes were made with Jake Beesley and Laurence Maguire replacing Simons and O’Shea.
Humphreys put another effort off-target from distance following a free kick.
Ian Evatt rounded off the scoring five minutes from time with a thumping header from Dimaio’s free kick.
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