'The whole performance and place felt flat'- Chesterfield assistant boss strives for improvement after home stumble
League Two play-off chasers Chesterfield have been warned they must quickly rediscover their high standards or say goodbye to a place in the end-of-season shoot-out.
Lowly Tranmere Rovers grabbed an unexpected point from a 1-1 draw at the SMH Group Stadium at the weekend and could have taken all three on chances created.
It took a first-half penalty save from Ryan Boot to help preserve a point for a below-par Spireites side.
Although the result was a jolt after three successive 1-0 wins, Chesterfield still occupy the fourth and final play-off place, a point ahead of tomorrow’s visitors Grimsby Town.
The challenge now is hanging onto it and, for assistant manager Danny Webb, that involves rediscovering some attacking punch.
"The point kept us in a play-off place and now we have a team full of beans, in Grimsby, coming to town,” he said.
"It gives us a chance to sort out the performance level because if we play like that for the remaining few games then we certainly won’t be getting in the play-offs.
"In the last few matches we’ve had some great little 1-0’ers but even then we haven’t put those games to bed.
"We were all full of praise because it’s all about the result but there hasn’t been enough 3-0 or 4-0’ers this season and that’s what we are renowned for really, not just scoring once or twice.
"We have conceded a lot less goals recently, which is great, but we conceded a goal we shouldn’t have (on Saturday) and it was only last five minutes that we really looked like ourselves. We had a bit of life but most of the game it was very flat. The whole performance and place felt flat.”
An eighth goal of the season from Tom Naylor had the Spireites ahead just before half time but an expected second-half surge didn’t materialise and Sam Finley’s leveller eight minutes after the restart squared things up for struggling Rovers.
Webb added: “When you play that poorly, the point is quite welcoming in terms of looking at the league table but too many times we’ve played teams down at the bottom and given them oxygen and a chance to come to the SMH and get something
“We had a good chance first half and Tom missed a chance in the second but let’s get it right, they could have scored three in the first half and they missed a penalty as well.
"You have to be honest in your appraisal of a game. I wouldn’t say we missed out on two points, because it wasn’t one of those games where we battered someone and missed loads of chances.
"There was a lot of poor decision-making.
"We can’t let our confidence dip. We have a few more games now to try and better that performance.”