'Do the basics better' says John Sheridan ahead of Chesterfield's trip to Maidenhead

The Spireites kicked off the 2019/20 season with defeat against Dover Athletic on Saturday, throwing away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1.

READ THE MATCH REPORT HEREHaving taken the lead in the 72nd minute, Sheridan’s frustration was clear for all to see, as he felt his side should have seen the game out.

Whilst he was keen to stress that this was the first game of the season, he feels his side need to sharpen up on the basic parts of the game if they are to mount a serious promotion challenge.

Reflecting on the weekend defeat, Sheridan said: “I could talk all day. I’m talking about throw-ins, when we’ve got a free pass, we’re giving it away to the opposition.

“When the ball goes forward, nine times out of ten, and we made it clear because of the lack of height, when we played long we knew it would come back most of time. Read second balls, react.

“If we can’t start from the first, start from the second phase and we just don’t do it. We’re not working hard enough. Well, we did for 20/25 minutes and you can see the problems we caused them. For the first goal, it was ridiculous how we didn’t react to the situation and it has ended up spoiling it.

“We do a lot of basic and simple things poorly at times.

“Silly fouls, giving cheap fouls away. We made it clear, don’t give cheap fouls away and we did too much in the first half. They were a big team with good delivery and it puts you on the back foot.

“Hopefully we learn from it but it cost us on Saturday.”

Chesterfield take on Maidenhead tomorrow night, looking to bounce back with a positive result.

Chesterfield are hoping to have to be boosted by the return of two first-team regulars for tomorrow night’s game, although Sheridan refused to name the players that would come back into the fold after illness and injury.