'Talk is cheap '“ only actions and wins will suffice now'

A lot has been said about the desire to turn a poor season around and how sure staff and players are that they can avoid the drop.

But having just been hammered 4-0 by Oxford United, those words have meant very little.

Town’s 21-year-old winger says only actions count now.

“Talk is cheap. We have to score goals, defend better,” he said.

“It’s easy to say it, we have to get goals on the pitch.

“We have to look at ourselves from back to front, we’re not scoring enough goals and conceding too many.

“We take full responsbility, the manager sets us up and trusts us and we let him down on Saturday.

“Defensively, attacking, in midfield we weren’t good enough.”

As one of the players tasked with either scoring or creating chances for others, Mitchell is well aware of the responsibility that rests on his shoulders.

Chesterfield have the third worst goalscoring record in League One and sit eight points from safety with a dozen games left.

Every game takes on extra significance the longer the ‘relegation form’ continues and tomorrow night at Walsall Chesterfield face another must win encounter.

“We’ve got some targets and as attacking players we haven’t scored enough goals,” said Mitchell.

“We haven’t scored two in a game for a while.

“That’s one of our priorities for the Walsall game.

“Only wins can do for us now, to help and affect our season so we’re definitely going for the three points.

“I know they’re a good footballing side, but I think we play better against those.”

Criticism has been thrown at the Spireites from the stands and from behind keyboards, with huge numbers of Town fans seriously disillusioned.

Mitchell understands their frustration, but says the players have to remain upbeat.

“The fans won’t have been happy after Saturday, no one should have been and they have a right to voice their opinion.

“But we as players have to stick together and prove the fans wrong and hopefully stay up.

“If we score first in the game, get one win under our belt and go on a good run anything can happen.

“We need a big response.

“We want to show what we can do, pull together.

“All we can do is try our best but all it takes is one good match, one rub of the green and our season could turn.”