Chesterfield assistant manager Danny Webb praised his players for bouncing back from the “heartache” of their Carabao Cup defeat to arch rivals Mansfield by beating Bristol Rovers 3-1.
Late goals from Kyle McFadzean and Armando Dobra sealed victory against the 10-man visitors, who had Joel Senior sent off towards the end of the first half but had been on course for a point when Isaac Hutchinson cancelled out Tom Naylor’s opener.
Webb, whose side were beaten 2-0 by Mansfield, said: “It’s a great way to come back after the disappointment of Tuesday night – and it was a disappointment, let’s get it right, because of who we played and who we lost to.
“So hopefully that win today, looking at the league table, made the heartache of Tuesday a little bit easier to take.
“It was a game of set-pieces in terms of goals, but forget about that part of the game, we did create a lot of good stuff in open play.
“When they equalised, their support was excellent and they got behind them and you just felt the momentum shift, albeit briefly.
“We stood strong, we defended well. You’d rather play against 10 people every week. It makes it easier, but it doesn’t make it easy.”
Bristol Rovers boss Darrell Clarke was unhappy with the red card, which he felt proved a turning point.
He said: “They’re a team that’s a little bit more advanced than us at the minute, they’ve been together a lot more than we have.
“I think we start the first half solid, if not spectacular. We have a great chance, we’ve promised. They have a good chance from a corner.
“And then the decision obviously changes the dimensions of the game. I’m sure when he (referee Sam Mulhall) looks at it back he’s going to be disappointed, because how soft is that? I don’t know. It obviously determines the game.
“We had a look back at it, it looked like Dobra was stumbling even before there was a tiny bit of contact.
“You need the officials to be on form. I mean, there’s one offside there where he’s two or three yards offside and the linesman waves play on. It baffles me, it really does, but we’ve got to take our medicine.
“We were staying in the game and trying to get back into it. We did that, but for me the mentality then after that was not good enough, really not good enough for me.
“I hate victim mentality, we’ve just got to defend right. Bad defending for the second goal from a set-piece should never happen, but it shouldn’t even be a set-piece if we defend it right.
“They’ve got to learn quickly before we can start calling ourselves a team.”
