Chesterfield vs Oldham Athletic. EFL Trophy Northern Area Final.
Proact StadiumAttendance5,724.
Wednesday 18 January 2012 22:57, UK
Chesterfield edged an entertaining first leg of the JPT Northern Final at the B2net Stadium with a 2-1 victory over Oldham.
Danny Whitaker dispatched his spot kick after Shefki Kuqi had fired his against the top of the crossbar in between a second-half opener from Scott Boden and a spectacular goal from Robbie Simpson. Boden could have scored twice in the first half but he fluffed his lines badly, heading Drew Talbot's cross wide from four yards in the 12th minute and then miskicking in front of goal when Jack Lester set him up in the 36th minute. But he made no mistake four minutes into the second half when James Hurst crossed to the back post and Boden arrived to sidefoot past Alex Cisak. Oldham wasted a great chance to level when Kuqi was pulled over by Josh Thompson in the 54th minute only for the Finn to drive his spot kick against the bar but the visitors equalised four minutes later when Simpson beat Tommy Lee with a swerving 30 yard strike. Chesterfield regained the lead in the 66th minute when Lester was tripped by James Tarkowski, and Whitaker beat Cisak by drilling the penalty down the middle to give his team a narrow advantage to take to Oldham a week on Monday.
