'You have to put your chances away' - Paul Cook reacts to losing league start
Manager Paul Cook pointed to missed chances as Chesterfield were beaten by Fleetwood Town in their League Two opener.
Ched Evans made his old club pay for a failure to capitalise by looping in a 35th minute winner just a week after he’d scored the only goal of the game in the League Cup meeting between the two.
“Fair play to Ched, it was a fantastic goal,” said Cook. You know how difficult it is going to be and well done to Fleetwood.
"You have to put your chances away. We have brought new players into the club and we have got to give them the chance to become those players we have had in the past and the crowd have idolised. The reason they have been idolised is that when these moments come in games they get them off their feet.
"We missed a big chance with Lee Bonis. Dilan (Markanday) has done great and set it up. Lee has put his header over the bar and right away from the goal kick we are getting beat 1-0. That’s footy. This is the start of the season. Everyone has great expectations but it is one game.”
Cook had spoken in the week about how his side has often struggled to find a way through packed defences.
Chesterfield ideally needed to score first to draw Fleetwood out and open the contest up but once they took the lead the game played out not unlike the cup tie a week before, although the Spireites were better over the piece this time.
"These teams are so well organised, so well drilled,” he said. “I’ve said for a long time our worse results have been 0-0.
"We are really disappointed with the result, of course we are, but I don’t feel the players did loads wrong. It was a tough afternoon for them in terms of difficult conditions where the pitch got dry but we kept trying and trying.
"Credit to Fleetwood. In the end they had a couple of break-aways and on another day it could have looked worse than it was."
After two frustrating Saturdays against Fleetwood, there’s the prospect of a more open game away to big-spending Salford next weekend, who surprisingly dipped 3-1 away to Barnet today.
With new players bedding in, Cook is expecting better in the coming weeks from his play makers.
He added: "If you are doing the right things, getting crosses into the box and penetrating where you want to penetrate and if you create enough chances, which I felt we did, it comes down to the flair players to get the chances.
"All our flair players want to do well and I’m sure over the course of the season they will do well.”