Tommy Lee believes players are '˜100 per cent' behind under-fire manager

The Spireites have won just once in eight outings this season and fell to a 5-1 drubbing at Crewe on Saturday.

Speaking ahead of tonight’s trip to Colchester, Lee said the players have let Caldwell down of late.

“The lads are down, we under performed and it wasn’t good enough,” he said.

“But we’ve got a chance to put it right.

“I can only speak from a personal point of view from what I’ve seen the lads are 100 per cent behind the gaffer.

“This notion in football that a manager is directly responsible for the results, that’s fine, they’re in charge, but there is 11 very good players out there who have let themselves down, the manager down and the fans down.”

Lee doesn’t attempt to sugar coat Town’s performance away from the Proact this season, with four defeats from four outings.

Tonight at Colchester they’ll have a chance to start improving that record and their overall hopes of 2017/18 success.

“Our away form has been rubbish this season and we’ve got an opportunity to go there and start a bit of a run,” he said.

“In my time at the club we’ve gone to Colchester on a number of occasions and when we’ve needed results we’ve got them.

“We’ve got to do that, sooner rather than later.

“If we want to be at the top end of the table we have to get results soon.”

He acknowledges that Colchester, unbeaten in four games at home, will be a tough proposition but says Chesterfield should be earning points from games like this one.

“They’re enthusiastic, have some good players, they work hard,” he said.

“It’s going to be difficult but with the players we have under performing, if we start performing we’re going to pick up results.

“We’ll go there with no fear as much as possible.”