Chesterfield first-team coach Gary Roberts hailed his side’s 1-0 win away to Stevenage in the FA Cup as a deserved success.
Lee Bonis got the only goal in the 61st minute, converting a penalty awarded when Dan Sweeney inexplicably gave the ball away just outside his area and Carl Piergianni fouled Dilan Markanday.
The Sky Bet League One side did hit the crossbar late on when a header from Chesterfield’s Chey Dunkley flew past goalkeeper Zach Hemming and there was a late opportunity for substitute Chem Campbell.
But the Spireites had their own chances to seal a bigger margin of victory, much to the delight of their management team.
Roberts said: “I thought our two centre-halves dealt with them so well, they dealt with most of the balls coming into the box, which we knew was coming.
“The performance today was the same as the performance at Tranmere, just the result was that little bit different.
“We didn’t deserve to blow Stevenage away, but we deserved to win the game.
“We knew it was going to be tough coming here, nobody’s won here this season, but we were prepared and it was a proper cup tie.
“You need a little bit of luck along the way. We’re coming to one of the top teams in League One, but if you look through the ties today, there’s been a couple of surprises. And we deserved ours.”
Stevenage manager Alex Revell knew exactly what to make of their performance.
“Extremely disappointing,” he said. “We play a certain way with intensity and tempo and we had none of that.
“If you start slow and with a lack of intensity, it’s very difficult to pick it up and we don’t play like that.
“We’ll be making sure that we get back to who we are and this not a performance that’s acceptable for us.”
