'Kept asking questions' - Solihull Moors boss Neal Ardley praises Chesterfield's spirit in play-off clash

The Moors beat the Spireites 3-1 and will now play Grimsby Town in the final.

The Blues, who took the lead through Joe Quigley, were undone by two set-pieces and fell to defeat at the Armco Arena.

"We have had to dig in, Chesterfield kept asking questions,” Ardley said. “They had the two big men up front in the last ten minutes and we defended well and put our bodies on the line.

"At half-time we knew that Paul (Cook) was getting frustrated that they needed to be even braver with the way they passed so we knew they would try and get a more possession which they did. We talked about how to deal with that because at times I thought it was too easy for them to work their way through our midfield and get it to Calvin Miller and get him running at James Clarke. We talked about stretching the game and I thought we did that two or three times in the second-half.

"(Paul) Cook drew out of them something he had not been able to in the last four or five games in the league and that is dangerous.

"They (Chesterfield) had the nerves of Tuesday night against Halifax, they came through that test and then all of a sudden they have got their big game head on and whereas we have had two weeks without a game and had to try prepare for a big game and I thought we got it right.”

'Painful' - Chesterfield's play-off defeat 'difficult to take', says Paul Cook after loss to Solihull Moors

How we rated each Chesterfield player in play-off defeat to Solihull Moors

Despite going behind Ardley had no doubt had the quality and the character to get back in the game.

“I didn’t have to pick the team back up, they do it themselves,” he added.

"Eighty-three goals in a season tells you we know how to score goals.

"We went one-nil down and I never thought for a moment that we did not have at least two goals in us and that gives everybody confidence.

"You can look at why we conceded but it was just a case of bouncing back. We got back on the ball, played our game and the first goal we scored to equalise was sublime.

"Before they (Chesterfield) scored I thought we had two great chances to score, the keeper (Scott Loach) has made a great save from Kyle Hudlin.”