Chesterfield 'bullied' and flattened' by Woking - as manager Paul Cook reveals goalkeeper almost joined Scunthorpe United

The visitors scored three times in the first-half and ran-out 3-1 winners despite Liam Mandeville pulling a goal back after the break.

There were some boos in the first-half as Town shipped in three goals following some individual mistakes.

Cook said: “The first-half performance was shocking, wasn’t it? It was bitterly disappointing.

“I will always argue the case for the players because I don’t agree with turning on your team, turning on players, I never will. I am a supporter myself and I would never act like that.

“Was our performance way off it in the first-half? 100 per cent. I just feel that sometimes the atmosphere in the stadium can lead to players probably not really wanting to perform maybe as they should.

“We have just played West Brom in one of the best games I have seen. I just feel our fans are very quick to turn and I think that is modern day football now.

“This is a two-way street, this is not that our supporters are wrong, we were shocking first-half.

“We got bullied, we got ran all over and bullied. We were not strong, we were open, we got hurt and we got flattened in the first-half.

“We have had five years now in this division, a ridiculous amount of players come and go, and somewhere along the line we have got to put a foot in the sand to say we need to get better and grow.

“Tonight was a perfect example of coming up against a team that outfought us, outmuscled us in the first-half and the game had gone away from us.

“In the second-half we got a tiny bit of pride back by being honest, scoring a good goal, I thought Liam Mandeville was absolutely magnificent in the second-half, I thought he was a shining light to everyone on how the game should be played.”

On the goals conceded, Cook continued: “It was a poor first goal where both full-backs are totally out of the game against a team that are going to run through you. I would love to show you our pre-match analysis of Woking, they got told of what was coming. The second is an Ash Palmer mistake I think and then the third one is a Lucas (Covolan) mistake.

“I felt the crowd’s treatment of Lucas was poor on the night if I am honest and I felt our back four’s treatment of Lucas was also poor by continually wanting to pass backwards instead of forwards.”

Covolan came in for some criticism from the terraces but Cook revealed that fellow goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons was not available after he made it known he wanted to leave.

Cook explained: “I am not trying to hang Ross Fitzsimons out to dry in any shape or form. Ross made it clear on Saturday night that he wanted to join Scunthorpe. So I think when the fans ask where Fitzsimons is I think that answers everyone’s question. Unfortunately Ross was not available for selection tonight. Ross has been excellent at our club, he is a really good character, he trains well, he was probably frustrated that Lucas might have been ahead of him and probably looked to maybe go and play football. But tonight he was not available for selection and all of a sudden Lucas has a difficult night and that spreads through the stadium.”

On where that leaves Fitzsimons, Cook told the DT :”Ross is our player, 100 per cent. There are no problems with Ross.”

There was once again no recognised striker on the bench as the search for a forward goes on.

Cook added: “(Akwasi) Asante has been out now since last Thursday with a groin problem, we have not got Danny Rowe available for selection, (Kabongo) Tshiamanga has left us, Manny Oyeleke is not available, so our squad is just not quite as strong as some people might have you think. Everybody is doing their best to deliver what they want.”