Chesterfield denied 'stonewall' penalty in draw against Maidenhead United, says Paul Cook

Will Grigg looked to have a strong shout for a spot-kick when he was brought down in the box in the second-half but referee Jason Richardson was unmoved.

Cook told the DT: “We have certainly had a stonewall penalty not given. That is disappointing because I just don’t feel it was a hard decision to make. It just doesn’t make sense. You have got a lad six-yards out in front of goal about to score. It is not a hard decision to give but referees make mistakes and we move on.”

The Spireites fell behind on 30 minutes but they earned a point thanks to Michael Jacobs’ excellent curling strike.

The result ends Town’s seven-game winning run but they remain top of the league.

Cook said: “I don’t look at today as a bad result but there is still a tinge of disappointment that it could have been better.

“I am just a little bit disappointed with the whole performance really. I just felt we were a little bit back to where we were at Aldershot, Fylde and Altrincham where we were giving the ball away cheaply at times and teams were running forward and breaking on us. I didn’t really enjoy the game to be truthful.

“We can’t keep giving away the first goal and giving teams something to hang on to. Their goal, from our point of view, is an absolute shocker. It sees their lad go in our box totally unopposed when we have just had three lads closing one person down. It is in that willingness to help someone else that you negate your own job. We were probably just a little bit off it all over the pitch.

“But great credit to the players for getting a point. We have to accept our point and move on but I am tinged with a bit of disappointment that our great winning run has stopped.

“Is it two points dropped? I will probably work that out over the weekend.”

Chesterfield have been on an excellent run, the club’s best winning record for 56 years, but their standards dropped off a bit at York Road.

Cook added: “All our flair players were off.

“Jacobs has scored a fantastic goal from one of our best passages in the game where we are retaining the ball in the opposition half instead of just giving it them back.

“We aren’t going to win every game but I always go off performances. Today is disappointing because I felt we never really imposed ourselves on the game where we felt we were going to score. We finished the game defending our goal for far too long.”