Rival boss: '˜It's a big club and a stadium like this deserves to be in the Football League'

The already-relegated Spireites were beaten 2-1 by Gareth Ainsworth’s Wycombe Wanderers, a result which guaranteed automatic promotion for the Chairboys.

Speaking after joining his club’s supporters on the pitch in jubilant scenes, Ainsworth addressed the sad situation that Town find themselves in.

He believes Chesterfield are too big a club to leave the Football League.

“This club is too big for the Conference, it really is,” he said.

“Don’t know how it’s slipped away but it happens in football and I’m sure they’ll give it a right good go of coming straight back up but it’s a tough league.

“It’s a big club and a stadium like this deserves to be in the Football league so hopefully they can get back up.

“I’m very surprised they’ve gone down but this does happen and you’ve got to try and address it when it’s happening.

“It’s also tough to change managers during a season, everyone blames everyone and who knows what the real reason is but they’ll certainly be fighting next year to come back up because as I say this club deserves to be in the Football League.”

Ainsworth gave his backing to the man standing in the home technical area on Saturday to go on and become a manager.

Ian Evatt was in caretaker charge of the Spireites for the first time in what will be a three-game stint, following the departure of boss Jack Lester.

Ainsworth said: “I’m a friend of Ian Evatt and I think he has a good attitude to become a manager.

“Whether it’s him or someone else, this is a fantastic club and I’ve been here many times with Wycombe and mostly it’s been really tough but on the last couple of occasions it’s thankfully gone our way when we needed it.”