Spireites’ run ended by magic of O’Nien

WYCOMBE relied upon a moment of inspiration from Luke O’Nien to overcome Chesterfield but Wanderers boss Gareth Ainsworth was just as keen to laud his side for their grit and determination.

O’Nien’s stunning 54th-minute strike kept Ainsworth’s men within touching distance of the automatic promotion places and forced visitors Chesterfield into the bottom two.

“That wasn’t an easy game,” Ainsworth admitted. “It took a bit of magic. Luke’s capable of that, which is brilliant, but I think on chances, we probably edged it. But the work-rate, the commitment, and the effort of the boys, and the togetherness that they’ve got, is something special.”

The Chairboys looked set to go ahead on 25 minutes when the ball fell invitingly for Craig Mackail-Smith inside the box after the visitors failed to clear a Joe Jacobson cross but Chesterfield keeper Cameron Dawson blocked the forward’s fierce point-blank shot in spectacular fashion before smothering the attacker’s follow-up.

The Spireites had a penalty appeal waved away shortly after when Kristian Dennis went to ground following an aerial duel with Jacobson but were fortunate not to go in behind after Sam Saunders rattled the crossbar with a sweetly struck 27-yard free-kick in the dying moments of the half.

Adebayo Akinfenwa was causing the visitors all sorts of trouble with his movement up front for Wycombe.

And O’Nien eventually put the hosts in front eight minutes after the restart, coming in off the right to fire a fine left-footed strike into the far corner from the angle of the box.

“It’s really nice to be poised for a challenge for the automatic places throughout the Christmas period,” Ainsworth added. “It’s probably something that no one thought we were capable of.”

Chesterfield now sit second-frombottom, but the defeat was their first in seven in the league, and manager Jack Lester felt his side deserved something from the game.

“A nil-nil would have been about right,” Lester reflected. “We got in down the sides a few times and had we picked out the right man, we’d have probably gone one-nil up and have gone on to win the game.”

But Lester was critical of referee Nicholas Kinseley’s failure to award a penalty for the possible foul on Dennis.

He said: “I thought it was a penalty. He’s pushed him in the back going down.”