For 88 minutes, Stanley played some of the best football witnessed at the Crown Ground for a long time.
They passed the ball to perfection, played with a purpose, there was always back-up for any mistakes and everyone was involved, from back to front, as they made the league leaders – who had only lost one league game all season – look ordinary.
While people elsewhere may have raised eyebrows as Stanley raced into a two-goal lead, those at the ground were talking about how it should have been more as 4-0 would not have flattered the Reds at the break.
They outplayed and outfought a Chesterfield side tipped to go up and it looked like the Reds were back to their best as they hunted back-to-back wins, hoping to put a dip in form behind them and make a charge up the table towards those coveted play-off spots.
However, in a mad six minutes it all went wrong to leave the Stanley contingent gutted not to have claimed a scalp.
A goal at the Crown Ground had probably never been greeted with such silence as Deane Smalley’s strike with two minutes left after a mix-up in the Reds defence, and even the Chesterfield fans didn’t seem to expect it after a below-par show from their table-toppers.
Even as a consolation it wasn’t deserved – and denied the Reds what would have been a welcome clean sheet – and Chesterfield boss John Sheridan was first to admit Stanley were better in every department.
And then it was deja vue back to Bradford, Oldham and Huddersfield.
When the fourth official held up four minutes of injury time there was a massive groan and a tinge of anxiety from the Reds fans who have been there so many times before.
And the injury-time Scott Boden equaliser – with the sub unmarked and having all the time in the world to fire home to level with 20 seconds left on the clock – was greeted with utter bemusement.
Perhaps that’s why Chesterfield are top of the league – they can grind out results even without playing well but, in fairness to Sheridan, he wasn’t hiding behind that.
"We were outplayed, Accrington are a decent side and were better than us", he said. "We didn’t deserve anything out of the game so I have got to be grateful for a point."
Grateful indeed, while John Coleman and his team couldn’t put into words how distraught they were at losing two of the three points they should have won at a canter.
At one point, between 3pm and 4.43pm, the Reds had moved up to 13th in the table, just five points from the play-offs after dropping within two points of the relegation spots not so long ago.
But instead the draw meant they had to settle for 18th spot which keeps them in the bottom half of a tight league.
Coleman admitted: "This is the worst I have felt as a manager and the worst I have felt in football.
"How do you have a go at a team that has ran themselves into the ground for two days out of three and then have gone to sleep for the last five minutes? And that’s not the first time it has happened.
"The galling thing is we were wasteful when we had chances to make it three or four-nil, we sat too deep late on and were punished for it."
Stanley always looked in control after they took a 10th minute lead against a team without injured top scorer Craig Davies but who still had the likes of Jack Lester and Drew Talbot in their ranks and who had a four-point gap at the top going into Monday’s game.
Ian Craney, in possibly his last game of his month from Fleetwood, threaded the ball through for McConville to run onto and, although Tommy Lee saved his initial effort, it came back at the midfielder and bounced off him over the line.
And the Stanley fans were in dreamland when number two came, Craney nicking the ball on the right and firing in a low cross for Terry Gornell to make it seven for his season.
Chesterfield had had possession but not tested Ian Dunbavin while Stanley threatened to embarrass Sheridan’s side.
Defender Phil Edwards could have made it three with a header from a corner which Lee turned around the post and the keeper pushed away a Jimmy Ryan free kick as Stanley continued to create chances.
Craney wasted a couple of opportunities when in a good position – with games under his belt you’d expect him to score at least one of them.
It was expected that the visitors would show more after the break as they were chasing the game but, while they huffed and puffed, they rarely came near the Reds goal.
Sheridan made three subsitutions and he credited all of them with getting them back on track – with Smalley and Boden scoring and Jack Hunt upping the pace – but in truth it was the Reds who gifted Chesterfield the goals.
Danny Whitaker’s ball into the box two minutes from time didn’t look a threat and barely had the crowd taking notice as it looked easy for Kevin Long or Ian Dunbavin.
But they left it for each other, allowing Smalley to take advantage.
"That was a ridiculous goal," said Coleman. "It’s a nothing ball, Kevin Long leaves it to Ian Dunbavin, Ian Dunbavin does the hokey cokey and it’s a goal."
If that was bizarre, Coleman was furious with the late, late equaliser.
The assistant flagged for a Gornell off-side which the Reds boss said wasn’t off-side allowing Chesterfield a free kick, which was cleared by Andy Procter but only to Talbot on the edge of the area and he crossed for Boden who made no mistake.
"It’s another ridiculous goal where we had enough men in the box," fumed the boss. "But someone’s decided not to mark their player. But Terry wasn’t offside in the build-up and, if the assistant hasn’t given that, the game’s over. But he does give it and they score.
"It’s not the first time we’ve been on the end of a decision by that linesman which has cost us – he gave a goal at Hereford that hadn’t crossed the line.
"That’s the annoying thing. But saying that we should play for 95 minutes, not just 90. We only have ourselves to blame."
