The Spireites produced a statement performance as they beat Colchester United 3-0 on Tuesday evening to propel themselves back into the League Two play-off places.
First-half strikes from Will Grigg and Dilan Markanday put Chesterfield in the ascendancy at the break before substitute Lee Bonis made it three midway through the second half.
After losing the reverse fixture 6-2 back in October, the Spireites responded with a dominant showing of their own.
Paul Cook made five changes to the side that lost 1-0 to Barnet on Saturday, with Malik Owolabi-Belewu making his first appearance for the Spireites this evening, along with places from the off for Tom Naylor, Kyle McFadzean, James Berry and Grigg.
It was a quiet opening ten minutes as the Spireites enjoyed large swathes of possession without any real attacking intent.
The game’s first chance fell to a blue shirt when Will Grigg connected with Dilan Markanday’s cross, which Matt Macey had to tip over the bar.
Moments later, it was another opportunity for the home side when Ryan Stirk and Grigg had sights of goal after Sam Curtis’ cross.
Chesterfield’s pressure soon paid dividends when the referee pointed for a penalty after Harvey Araujo was adjudged to have blocked Stirk’s cross with his arm.
Up stepped Grigg, who fired his spot kick into the left corner of the net, sending Macey the wrong way to give the Spireites a 26th-minute lead.
The visitors then had their first effort on Zach Hemming’s goal, when the shot-stopper was forced into a low save to deny Arthur Read.
Immediately after, the home side broke at pace, the ball fell to Berry on the edge of the area, but his effort was always curling away from goal.
Chesterfield continued to threaten with every attack and, six minutes before the break, doubled their advantage.
On the edge of the box, Markanday took a touch to set himself and then curled a wonderful strike into the far corner.
It was more of the same after half-time as Chesterfield continued to keep Colchester penned in their own half.
Just after the hour mark, Colchester launched a speculative ball forward, which landed with Romeo Akachukwu, who was clean through on goal, but McFadzean showed great recovery pace to thwart his effort.
Dylan Duffy almost grabbed an assist with his first touch of the ball as his in-swinging corner found Sil Swinkels; however, his header was straight at Macey.
Paul Cook’s double change proved to be inspired as both Duffy and Bonis combined to put the Spireites three up in the 72nd-minute.
Duffy fortuitously found the onrushing Bonis, and he made no mistake with his strike from the centre of the box.
It was another half chance for Colchester as the minutes ticked down when John-Kymani Gordon latched onto a deep cross, but there was no yellow shirt on hand to finish off the move.
When the fourth official flashed up 12 minutes of additional time, it was met with collective bemusement from all four corners of the ground.
But despite the sizeable chunk of added time, neither side created anything of note as Chesterfield ran out comfortable winners.
Chesterfield: Hemming, Curtis, McFadzean, Swinkels, Owolabi-Belewu (Donacien 74), Stirk, Naylor, Braybrooke, Markanday (Mandeville 81), Berry (Duffy 69), Grigg (Bonis 69)
Attendance: 7,348
