Conceding late equaliser will 'sting' and 'hurt' Chesterfield, claims Altrincham boss

The part-time Robins scored two late goals, including a stoppage time equaliser, to secure a draw at the Technique Stadium on Tuesday night.

Parkinson said the comeback was ‘right up there’ compared to previous ones over the years.

"I know that will sting Chesterfield massively because if I am Chesterfield I don’t want to be dropping points to Altrincham, a part-time team, we should not be coming here and getting anything,” he said.

"That will feel like a defeat to them but they are a very good team and they will bounce back.

"Scoring at the end will feel like a win to us.

"You can tell that has hurt them tonight. “

A-Jay Leitch-Smith struck in the sixth minute of added time when only four should have been played, sparking wild scenes on the Alty bench.

But an unapologetic Parkinson said: "We have celebrated because we have got one at the end and rightly so. They were certainly getting the crowd going when they wanted it to be over but unfortunately that is football. You have got to take it if you are going to give it and we certainly gave it back when we got that equaliser at the end. I don’t apologise to anybody for celebrating and neither do my players. You can see what it means to us all.”

In the end, Parkinson, who admitted they changed their shape to combat Chesterield’s threat, felt they got a ‘well deserved’ point.

"In the first-half we came with a very specific game plan to reduce their threats and I thought we did that excellently but unfortunately a couple of mistakes cost us goals right at the start and the end of the half,” he explained.

"Then we did what we always do and we went very offensive. We changed and went back to what we normally do and it paid off.

"I am slightly disappointed that we could not hold them out in that first-half because I don’t think they had a big, big goal threat. I think they had a little moment just before half-time where we made a couple of mistakes but overall I felt if we could have held them out we could have gone on to win the game quite comfortably but unfortunately it was not meant to be.

"I am saying that and we are talking about a super power in non-league in Chesterfield who are going great runs and doing fantastically well. They are really well organised, a really strong, physical team but I felt our bravery and creativity got us back in the game. “

He added: "The biggest compliment I can give James (Rowe) and his team is that we set up with a different formation which we never do. I am not being disrespectful to the rest of the league but that is just because of the way they have been going so we had to give them all the respect in the world.

"I didn’t they created a great deal but they are a really well organised team, you can see they are well-drilled and well-trained.”