Paul Cook 'disappointed' Chesterfield did not get penalty in Notts County draw

Alex Whittle gave the Spireites the lead on 13 minutes, his fourth of the season.

But the full-back gave away a penalty seconds before half-time when he was adjudged to have fouled Ruben Rodrigues.

Cook felt Town should have had a penalty of their own in the second-half when Tom Whelan looked to be blatantly bundled over in the box but referee Lewis Smith rejected the appeals.

Cook said: "Some of the big moments did not go our way. I am disappointed with the referee about the second-half penalty on (Tom) Whelan, I feel it is a dead easy decision to give especially after giving Notts County a debatable one in the first-half and that could have seen us win the game.”

Overall, it was an entertaining game in front of more than 10,000 fans at Meadow Lane, including 2,700 Spireites.

Both teams had chances to win it, but a point was probably about right.

"I think Notts County are one of the best teams in the league, they have a possession-based style which is very good on the eye and we knew they would test us in stages of the game but we felt we would get moments in the game where we could hurt them on the turnover in possession and we did that,” Cook said.

"I thought we played well in the first-half but you will never hear me knock the players, they don’t want to give penalties away, they don’t deliberately make mistakes. Football is a learning curve and we learn today the hard way, if you like, that in stages of the game we should go in one-nil up.

"I felt it was two good, honest, committed teams having a good game of football and we go away with a share of the spoils.

"Notts County had one or two big chances and I think we had one or two big chances so the reality is the teams probably cancelled each other out a little bit but it was a very competitive game.

"Notts County might be more disappointed with the point for us but for us it keeps one of our competitors a little bit away from us.

"I think a draw was probably a fair result.

"Overall, it was a good performance from our lads.”

The draw means the Blues drop to third.

"I knew we would bounce back from Tuesday, I felt we did, unfortunately we could not win the game,” Cook explained.

"We just have little stages of games where we look like making mistakes and being naive and we have got to eradicate them because if you can eradicate those small moments the reality is the big picture will take care of itself.

“I thought it was a great advert for the league.

"Our fans were magnificent.”

Jamie Grimes went off with a hip flexor problem early in the second-half.

Cook added: "He has had that problem for a bit now but he has been soldiering on manfully for a bit now. Today it got a little bit too much for him.”