Paul Cook likened Caolan Lavery to a young Wayne Rooney after his determination earned Chesterfield a 1-0 win over Notts County.
Paul Cook: Lavery like Rooney
With County's Roy Carroll and opposite number Tommy Lee saving everything, it was a mistake from home centre-back Haydn Hollis, forced by Lavery, that decided the contest.
Lavery rushed Hollis into a poor clearance in the 67th minute that cannoned off the striker and looped over Carroll and into the net.
And having joined the Spireites on loan until March, Cook believes the 22-year-old has a great deal more to offer.
"Caolan has shown us what he is about. He plays on the shoulder, he's brave and he's very robust," said Cook.
"He reminds me of a younger Wayne Rooney. I'm really pleased for him because he was blowing a bit at the end.
"He's come to us to play games and get match fitness, but his endeavour got him the goal.
"Overall I thought we played very well in terms of the parts of the game we are not really good at which is being scruffy, being dogged and doing the right thing.
"Shaun [Derry] has done a really good job here and what happens is, you win a lot of games early and then sometimes, when you have a little run that we all have, it can go against you.
"All in all we are really pleased with the result and we look forward to playing Preston on Tuesday night now."
Some fantastic goalkeeping from Carroll to deny Lavery and Lee to keep out Balint Bajner ensured the scores were level at the break and despite similar adventure in the second half, it was Lavery's luck that broke the deadlock.
County brought on Kwame Thomas and Garry Thompson to try and force the issue but Chesterfield held on to further damage County's dire home form, although boss Shaun Derry believes his players simply need their luck to turn.
"We can only play one way with the players we have at our disposal. I have to find a way of affecting football matches and in the first half we did it to a tee," said Derry.
"We created some good chances and we've missed one which if you score alters the course of the game completely.
"The problem was that we couldn't maintain that level of performance. We found it difficult once again to play at home, we struggled to create chances and by the minute in the second half you could hear the frustrations.
"It disappointed me if I am honest because we are seven points off the play-offs and I think the start we had earlier in the season, when we rose to fourth in the table, people got too carried away.
But we are where we are. It's a tough run and Chesterfield's goal probably summed up the luck at the moment."