‘Stay with us’ – Paul Cook makes impassioned plea to Chesterfield fans after Wrexham defeat

It was a battling display from the Spireites in North Wales, but Cook admitted that the side were struggling amid their recent run of form.

He said: “I made a decision to come back to try to take this club back to the Football League. At the minute, we’re really struggling – we’re on our knees and everyone needs each other badly.

Tonight just confirms to me more and more how important it is for me to do what I’ve tried to set out to do. All I ask them is to stay with us – I know the problems we’ve got, and we can’t fix everything in a window or overnight.

“We’ve got players that still need to move on and players to still bring in – we’ve got to grow stronger as a club.”

He also heaped praise on the fans who travelled to Wrexham for the game, and said their support has been a constant throughout his two spells at the club.

“One of the things we don’t need to grow stronger with is our support, it’s been there since the day I came to this club years ago.

“When I came off there and they basically gave me and the players a standing ovation, it makes me so proud of them – and that’s from the bottom of my heart. The biggest positive to me tonight is the travelling support.”

Cook added that, despite conceding early again, he felt his side had played some good football – but needed to be more clinical. He also bemoaned the decision not to award Jeff King a penalty, something he said was becoming a pattern.

“We continually come to grounds and continually concede the odd bad goal, but we create chances and to be fair, the referee has let us down second half. We’ve had an absolutely stonewall penalty that gives us 20-25 minutes to get the equaliser that would’ve seen our fans go home delighted.

READ THIS: Match recap: Chesterfield’s winless run stretches to nine games after 2-1 loss to Wrexham

“We’re really disappointed with the run we’re on, but we’ve still got so much to play for this season. There's so many good signs within the team, like the move we had in the first half – it’s absolutely top drawer. We open them up, great ball in and we have to score. They’re the moments that change games.

“It’s a stonewall penalty. I don’t know what we have to do to get them. You need the officials to help you.

“With the greatest respect to Wrexham, they’ve had a lot of penalties this year and we haven’t. This is the same referee who didn’t give Tom Whelan a penalty at Notts County that we felt was stonewall.”

It was confirmed that Danny Rowe was away from the squad after his grandfather passed away on Monday – with the striker set to return to training on Thursday.

Chesterfield are next in action on Saturday, when they travel to the North East to take on Gateshead (3.00pm KO).