Chesterfield coaching staff feared for safety of their players after Oldham Athletic fans' pitch invasion - reaction to dramatic draw

Ash Palmer headed the hosts in front on the hour before Norwood slid home deep into six minutes of stoppage time despite former Spireite Mike Fondop being in an offside position and possibly blocking the view of goalkeeper Harry Tyrer.

Norwood ran towards a section of Town supporters in the West Stand and hundreds of Oldham fans burst past stewards and followed him.

Blues goalkeeper Tyrer was targeted but was unhurt as the disgusting scenes unfolded.

Such was the concern, manager Paul Cook and his coaching team came on the pitch.

On the pitch invasion, Webb said: “It is disappointing. I think the gaffer ran on and myself, Gary and Bucky ran on because we saw Harry Tyrer getting thrown on the floor and you are worried someone is going to leave a foot on his head or something like that. You are just protecting your players. I thought our supporters behaved impeccably. They were really, really well behaved so I think we leave this game of football as supporters and as a football club with a lot of credit. I am sure Oldham will say it is a minority but it was a hell of a lot of people running on the pitch.”

Asked how Tyrer is, Webb continued: “He is alright, he is a tough guy. I am sure if he saw the bloke face-to-face, the bloke would run a mile because Harry is 6ft 4.

“He got caught from behind. If someone is doing that face-to-face you don’t go over but it catches you off guard and you hit the deck. The lad did it and then ran over to wind up our supporters. I am sure the police will look back at it and ban those people.”

The equaliser should also possibly not have stood, with Fondop perhaps blocking Tyrer’s view of the initial shot which was parried for Norwood to finish.

Asked if it was offside, Webb told the DT: “My bias head will say yes. Fondop was in an offside position and he was sort of in the eyeline, shall we say. Was he completely blocking the view? No. But he was in an offside position. I think he was affecting it so I don’t think the goal should have stood. My biggest disappointment is that there was no discussion between the referee and the linesman post the goal probably because of all the shenanigans that were going on and that got ignored. That is my only criticism.”

Referee Matthew Russell blew for full-time when both sets of players were ready to restart despite there possibly being at least one more minute remaining. However, Webb thinks that might have been a sensible call.

He explained: “People in the crowd were moaning that the referee blew his whistle straight away but you are thinking if they clear the restart, get a corner and win 2-1 and then it really is scenes.”

Norwood’s equaliser denied Chesterfield a fourth straight win but they remain unbeaten at the start of the season.

Webb, who revealed Ryheem Sheckleford came off at half-time with a tight hamstring, said: “We have all been around the game long enough to know that until that final whistle goes anything can happen - and anything did happen.

“There was a contentious goal, a pitch invasion and one of our players getting thrown to the floor. It all went off and then the referee blows the whistle straight away.

“We are ever so disappointed not to win, 12 points would have been great, 10 is not bad, but 12 would have been fantastic.

“Drawing with the last kick of the game is a bit of a sickener so we will certainly have a mope and a sulk tonight but come Monday we have got to bounce back.

“I don’t think we are sending everyone home massively unhappy but certainly very flat and it is a kick in the gut with that last-minute goal because you are so close to having a wonderful weekend.”

On the performance, he added:“It was okay, we have done more good than bad.

“We are disappointed not to have put the game to bed so that is something we can work on.

“I thought we defended resolutely against quite a strong, direct team, against two very good centre forwards.

“But the result does not lie, there is certainly no ‘we should have won’ - we drew the game. It is our fault that we did not win the game.

“But, looking at the positives, we did control the game, that does not mean we deserved to win it, but we did control it.”