Spireites '˜bullied' by Wycombe, says Wilson

The Chesterfield manager, who emerged for his press duties more than an hour after the final whistle, said his men were second best against the League Two side, who ran out 5-0 winners in the FA Cup second round tie.

And Wilson had no complaints about the sending off of Jon Nolan in the second half, deeming it a ‘stupid’ challenge by the midfielder.

A sluggish start almost cost Town but they never really recovered in the manager’s eyes.

“Disappointing is quite a mild word where I’m stood, we didn’t start well at all,” he said.

“We could have been 2-0 down in 10 minutes and never got out of the traps, didn’t learn the lesson and then we were 2-0 down after two set-plays.

“It’s all through the team, we got bullied, they played with an intensity we didn’t match.

“They’ve got physicality throughout the side and we didn’t stand up to them and paid the price.

“We get a man sent off which doesn’t help the cause but we’re still in the game, it’s only two goals but then they just steamrolled us.”

Going into the game with the momentum of back-to-back league wins, Chesterfield had high hopes of progressing to the third round of the FA Cup.

But Wilson said they were second best throughout the afternoon.

“Today we went under and that’s not what we’re about.

“The last few games have been good, we’ve stood up, made ourselves hard to break down at times, today we were too open, people just ran past us unaccompanied, not tracking runners.

“We never won the balls we expect to win, we played second fiddle most of the game.”

A hint of offside for Wanderers’ second goal was not of interest to Wilson who instead focused on the poor performance his side put in.

And he was critical of Nolan for getting himself red carded in the 64th minute, with Town two goals behind.

“Stupid, absolutely stupid,” he said.

“Up to then we’ve been second best in midfield and maybe that’s that frustration.

“He got the ball, he had an easy pass to play, he played it loosely and chased after it and dived in, the referee has got no choice really.”

Fan frustration was evident, many of the Spireites in the sparse crowd of 3,685 leaving before the final whistle.

Wilson understood their feelings but made a plea for fans to continue to back the players.

“We got a bit nervous again, the fans got a bit nervous and it transferred to the pitch and it doesn’t help,” he said.

“From people having the ball they started maybe not wanting the ball and that becomes a problem to the team.

“Of course I understand the frustration, if I was sat watching that I’d be frustrated.

“I do feel at times they’ve just got to sit back and have a little look at things.

“Yes we didn’t put a performance in, they were much better than us, there’s no excuses but what we need at this moment in time is a bit of an arm round ourselves.

“That’s what the players need, a bit of understanding to get them through this particular period.

“Today I hope this is a one off performance because we know we can perform better than that.”

Attention now turns to the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday at Rochdale and it’s a chance to begin to put things right said the manager, who also has an eye on a return to league action in a week’s time.

“We’ve got a game on Tuesday, we’ll try and get some pride back in that game,” he said.

“Then we’ve got a massive game at Peterborough at the weekend.”