Chesterfield 2 Ebbsfleet United 2 match report: Rakish Bingham and Ben Chapman goals earn National League point at leaders

Ebbsfleet stunned National League leaders Chesterfield by taking a deserved point on their travels on Saturday.

The Fleet ended Chesterfield’s perfect league record in 2024 - they had won seven in a row in the calendar year - and thoroughly deserved to return to Kent having taken another step towards safety.

Interim head coach Danny Searle, not surprisingly, named an unchanged team following last week’s goalless draw with Oldham.

Chesterfield were just seven wins away from securing the title and with 15 wins and a draw from 16 home games, it was seemingly a forgone conclusion against a side in the relegation zone.

But that theory was quickly thrown out of the window by Ebbsfleet's blistering start.

They were ahead after just 41 seconds when Omari Sterling-James' ball over the top set up Rakish Bingham, who cut inside Tyrone Williams and brilliantly arrowed his shot into the bottom corner beyond keeper Harry Tyrer from the edge of the box.

It was a great start by the Fleet but old habits die hard and they were guilty of overplaying at the back on 13 minutes when Luke O'Neill's clearance was blocked but skipper Josh Wright was able to rescue the situation.

That said, just two minutes later Ebbsfleet's ability to pass the ball out from the back created an opening at the other end. Toby Edser - full of running again - ran from halfway and ignored the option of Bingham before shooting over the bar from an angle just inside the area.

Edser was needed to clear a Branden Horton cross at the other end as the Chesterfield left-back started to create problems for the visitors before Will Grigg's effort was turned away for a corner by keeper Mark Cousins.

Another wayward pass, this time by Declan Skura, presented the ball to the