Lester: Performance reflects poor defensive options

Stevenage, with no wins in eight league games before Saturday, totally dominated proceedings as Danny Newton, Dale Gorman and Matt Godden, twice, all found the net in addition to Jak McCourt’s unfortunate own goal.

Kristian Dennis briefly got the Spireites back into the contest at 2-1 down but boss Lester admits his troops couldn’t recover from some calamitous defending, although insists there were mitigating circumstances.

“Our performance wasn't good enough,” he said. “We were too easily broken down, although I know we haven't got a lot of defenders playing in defence.

“I thought Jak McCourt competed well, but he's not a right-back, Scott Wiseman did okay but he's not a centre-half and Sam Hird got through the game.

“Had we had a full squad we might have left him out because he's carrying stuff so we're stretched. We haven't got the balance in our squad to cover when the injuries come, but January is on the horizon.”

Before Lester can add January reinforcements, second-bottom Chesterfield face a Boxing Day six-pointer against Crewe at the Proact Stadium.

The Spireites are currently level on points with bottom-of-the-table Forest Green and Barnet in 22nd, while they sit three points behind Crewe in 20th.

And the manager plans to combat their defensive woes by going on the offensive.

“We've got a home game where we're going to attack anyway, so hopefully we'll take the game to Crewe,” Lester added. “I think attack will be the best form of defence.

“It wasn't just the defence though; everybody was not competing enough. We could have scored three or four but it still wouldn't have been enough to get anything from the game.”