North End's lucky run with penalty shoot outs came to an end at Deepdale as Chesterfield triumphed on spot kicks in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy northern semi-final.

Jamie McCombe had given the Lilywhites the lead on his home debut, nodding in a 16th minute corner but a Craig Westcarr tap in from a lucky deflection on 25 minutes levelled things up.

North End had multiple chances to finish the job in normal time, including a more than strong shout for a penalty after Jamie Proctor was felled in the box with half an hour left, but it remained level after 90 minutes.

Thorsten Stuckmann gave Phil Brown's men an early advantage, saving the very first penalty from Westcarr, but an uncharacteristic miss from Graham Alexander and a save by Tommy Lee from Paul Coutts' effort led to a 4-2 victory for the Spireites.

The first half was an open affair Jordan Bowery getting the chances started, firing across goal inside the opening minute for the visitors, but two chances from headers, one for giant defender McCombe and one for Neil Mellor, in the third and fifth minute were gilt-edged early opportunities to give the whites the lead.

However, it was from another header that the deadlock was broken after 16 minutes. Danny Mayor swung in a corner from the left right under the cross bar and the Huddersfield loanee rose highest to nod past Tommy Lee.

It could have been two seven minutes later as Jamie Proctor picked the ball up on the right inside his own half and surged forward before driving in from the flank and flashing a ball across the line, only for Aaron Downes to acrobatically clear from under the cross bar.

But luck was against PNE on 25 minutes as the League One strugglers made it all-square, Craig Westcarr tapping home from close range after skipper Drew Talbot's effort was deflected stranding Thorsten Stuckmann and Paul Parry and allowing the Chesterfield No.9 to capitalise.

North End were peppering Tommy Lee's goal with shots, Danny Mayor, Paul Coutts and Neil Mellor, all denied by the visitors' No.1. And Mayor again was denied just a few minutes before the break when Mark Allott cleared off the line from his shot, with some quarters calling for a penalty for hand ball for the defender's block.

After the break the Lilywhites dominated possession and should have been given a chance from 12 yards to take the lead again. The ball was launched into the box towards Jamie Proctor. The frontman was then smashed from behind, sent crashing to the floor, but only Mr Haywood, with the whistle, inside Deepdale felt it was not a penalty.

Tommy Lee then pulled out two superb saves between the Chesterfield sticks. The first was from his own man, having to rush back and tip his own man's (Aaron Downes) miss-hit clearance over the bar; the second was to deny Neil Mellor's rasping drive from 30 yards going into the top left hand corner.

Mellor had the final real chance of the game running onto Craig Morgan's superbly weighted through ball, in a left hand channel, but whilst his left foot shot beat a diving Lee, it also missed the right hand post by the smallest of margins.

That meant that for the third round in a row it was a penalty shoot out that would deny North End's destiny in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

Chesterfield were first up but Thorsten Stuckmann added to his spot kick reputation, diving low to his right to deny Craig Westcarr from finding the back of the Town End net for a second time. Paul Parry and Neil Mellor converted for the Lilywhites, with Danny Whittaker and former PNE loanee Leon Clarke levelling things for the Spireites. However, Graham Alexander's effort clipped the bar and Paul Coutts saw his effort saved by Lee and after Dean Morgan converted it left Alex Mendy to convert the winning penalty and send Chesterfield into the northern final.