Jack McKay scored a first-minute goal as Chesterfield extended 10-man Torquay's dismal run of National League form in a 3-0 victory at Plainmoor.
The Gulls went into the fixture on the back of five consecutive defeats and failed to stop the rot against their lowly visitors.
McKay headed home from a Gevaro Nepomuceno cross with less than a minute on the clock before Saikou Janneh, who had looked lively for the home side, was sent off following an off-the-ball incident two minutes before the break.
Chesterfield made the extra man count nine minutes into the second half, when Curtis Weston headed in another Nepomuceno delivery.
Haydn Hollis rounded off the scoring in the 68th minute with a header from a Jay Sheridan corner, lifting the Spireites to 22nd and three points from safety.
Match report supplied by PA Media.
