Paul Cook identifies seven of the best as Chesterfield prepare for FA Cup tussle

Paul Cook has identified seven performances he wants Chesterfield to aspire to as they prepare for tomorrow’s FA Cup clash with Yeovil Town.

The Blues tackle the National League promotion contenders after an up and down league start laced with slick football, goals aplenty, iffy defending and unpredictability.

The 5-1 win over Crewe followed by the 4-1 loss at Newport highlighted the inconsistency and saw praise and then criticism heaped on the team in equal measure.

There has been plenty of defensive and off-the-ball work in training this week and, starting with Yeovil this weekend and then Mansfield Town in the Jersey Mike’s Trophy on Tuesday, Cook wants to see the best of Chesterfield more often.

He told the Derbyshire Times: “There’s a blame culture in football today like you heard at Newcastle this week, booing in stadiums. Negativity is a modern-day football thing and if you’re a manager you have to live with it.

“I just want our team to perform like they did against York and Tranmere and Gillingham and Colchester and Crewe and like we did at Salford and at Oldham.

“My world is those performances because if you can replicate them on a consistent basis then the reality is you will get where you want to be.

“If you don’t then we won’t, that’s the brutal truth.”

As reported elsewhere, Cook copped for a charge of improper conduct from the FA for his protests to the referee in the loss at Newport that thwarted attempts to reel in League Two’s front runners.

“We were so desperate to go into the top three,” he explained. “I felt it was a step we were fully capable of yet travelling back from Newport after you’ve been sent off, you feel like the world has ended again and it takes us back down to zero.

“Everything went wrong at Newport that can. They scored from four shots outside the box. These are anomalies.

“The truth is we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep working. We want to go on unbeaten runs and do all the positive stuff.

“We have got to turn the positive vibe into a more consistent one.”

Yeovil arrive at the SMH Group Stadium doing well in the National League and mustard keen to get back into the EFL after dropping out seven years ago.

Billy Rowley’s side can make a statement with a win and Chesterfield need to be alive to their threat.

“It’s a great tie. It’s what the FA Cup is about,” added Cook.

“I have watched a lot of ‘Conference’ football and the standard is going very much up.

“As we will see with Yeovil, they are very well coached. They have some good patterns and handle the ball really well and they will cause us problems.

“We have to make sure we cause them more problems than they cause us and we don’t come one of those numbers tomorrow - which there will be - of sides being knocked out by teams from a lower league.

“Like every team, Yeovil will get the upmost respect from us and they deserve it.

“The challenge for us in the league is to get that level of consistency but tomorrow and Tuesday it’s about getting two wins for our supporters, it’s as simple as that.”