Chesterfield Men's 1st XI welcomed a completely new opponent in Newcastle HC to St Mary’s this weekend for their second fixture of the 2026-27 season, in which Chesterfield HC M1s were looking to build on their first clean sheet in 4 years from their opening away trip to Hull last weekend. Chesterfield lost a player late in the week with an injury to Callum Taylor, but they were bolstered by the returning Sam Gower and new signing Tom Levie making his 1st XI league debut.
Fortunately, the pre-match rain held off for the 2:30 push back, allowing both sides to start strong in a fast paced, end-to-end opening ten minutes. After a couple of penalty corners for both sides, Chesterfield carved out their only open play chance of the half through Zach Scothern smashing a hit towards goal which was deflected by man of the match Ben Truby (pictured) resulting in Chesterfield taking the lead on 11 minutes. Chesterfield saw out the first half, limiting Newcastle to just two shots on target.

At half time, coach Christian Battye spoke about working the ball into the defensive midfielders and half backs, highlighting the solid work rate and defensive performance from Chesterfield HC in the first half so far. The second half saw Chesterfield HC holding onto possession for decent periods, with gaps opening up between the lines allowing for a number of penalty corners, but these good chances were not taken. However, chances were still falling in Chesterfield’s favour only to be matched by the Newcastle keeper who was the busier of the two goalkeepers.
The second goal came from a quickly taken free hit finding Ryan Speed driving the baseline, finding Ted Murray whose quick shot forced a save that fell fortunately to Cameron Taylor on the back post, who clinically slotted the ball into the bottom corner. Newcastle came out strong from the restart, trying to get back into the match and pressing Chesterfield back and opening up their best chances of the game in the last 10 minutes. In the dying moments, a Newcastle forward found himself one-on-one with Chesterfield goalkeeper Matt Drohan, but fortunately his lofted effort hit the outside of the goal. The game petered out for the final moments with Chesterfield securing the three points and another clean sheet.
After the game, Chesterfield 1st XI assistant coach Ella Kenney said ““It wasn’t always pretty, but it was effective. The work rate from the lads today was exceptional and it was great to see them taking pride in another clean sheet”.
Chesterfield head up to City of York next weekend, which following very close matches over the last few seasons, is becoming a highly anticipated fixture in the league calendar.

Final score Chesterfield HC 2 - 0 Newcastle HC

Match report by Sam Barrett
Match