Saunders celebrates first game with a win

DEAN Saunders insists his side won’t be getting carried away after celebrating his first game in charge of Chesterfield with a win.

After conceding a fourth minute goal to Barnsley through Conor Wilkinson, Chesterfield’s Sylvan Ebanks-Blake stole the show.

Jay O’Shea levelled for Chesterfield five minutes after the break, before two goals in a minute through Ebanks-Blake and Sam Morsy turned the game on its head.

Saunders said:“I’m pleased that we’ve come back from a goal down, I thought we played well right from the start of the game.

“We looked fit, we looked strong and it was a good performance from all of them but I’m not getting carried away, it’s just one game and we have to move on.

“We didn’t panic after going a goal down and I thought we played very well right through the whole of the game

“All in all, it was a good performance and I enjoyed watching it. I couldn’t have asked for more from them, we created a lot of chances.”

Barnsley couldn’t have wished for a better start when they opened the scoring in just the fourth minute.

On-loan midfielder Danny Crowley set off on a surging run that caused chaos before cleverly dinking a through-ball to Wilkinson to fire home.

Chesterfield piled on the pressure in the early stages of the second-half and their efforts were almost instantly rewarded when Ebanks-Blake played in O’Shea who coolly slotted home past Adam Davies.

That goal gave the Spireites the impetus to grab another and they soon did on 72 minutes when Ebanks-Blake swivelled on a sixpence before powering a deflected effort past Davies in the Barnsley goal.

Straight from the resulting kick-off, Chesterfield wrapped up the points when Ebanks-Blake who was involved yet again, fed the ball into the path of Morsy who spectacularly curled a thunderous 25yard effort crashing against the post and into the net.

Barnsley manager Lee Johnson said:“I was disappointed as I thought we started the game well but once we got pegged back we went down like dominoes.

“Over the course of the 90 minutes it did look like we capitulated at times, the second and third goals were really poor to concede.

“I thought our fans were excellent and even when we were 3-1 down they kept on singing and were right behind the boys.

“Make no mistake our players have to grow up quickly because this is a tough league, full of physicality and you need great mental strength to be successful.”