Angry John Pemberton fumes at defending and officials as Chesterfield concede stoppage-time winner against Torquay United

Town’s boss was also fuming with the decision not to award the Spireites a free-kick just moments before the hosts won a corner and scrambled the ball home through Asa Hall with 30 seconds remaining.

Louis Britton’s opened the scoring for the hosts in the ninth minute, but Town equalised just before half-time when Tom Denton finished from close-range after Liam Mandevile’s free-kick was saved.

“I am frustrated and I am angry because it is a game that we lost that we should not have lost, but we lost it because we lost concentration in the 95th minute and a poor decision which killed us,” Pemberton said.

“The game is quite an even game to be fair, other than them huffing and puffing, but we can’t defend a corner and it is not good enough and I have told them. It is hard to take.

“I don’t think it was deserved, but having said that we are not unlucky because we don’t do our job in the final 30 seconds and we can’t defend a corner We switched off. It has bobbled in the front post. It is not good enough.”

The Blues had possession deep into Torquay’s half with just a minute to go when it looked like they have should have been awarded a free-kick for a foul, but referee Scott Jackson did not give it and the Gulls went up the other end and scored the winner from a corner.

“It was a free-kick,” Pemberton said. “It is a blatant foul in the final third with 30 seconds to go and they pummel it up and they get a corner from it.”

On the performance overall, he added: “First half I thought we were the better team. The goal they scored in the first half was against the run of play. Second half we were put under a bit of pressure, but we are going to be put under pressure, we are playing a decent side who are at home.

“We’ve got to lick our wounds and bounce back and start again on Saturday, but if we defend like we did in the 95th minute then we will get beat.”