Nigel Adkins says Tranmere ‘not good enough’ against Chesterfield

Nigel Adkins labelled Tranmere’s performance as “not good enough” after they slumped to a 3-0 League Two defeat at Chesterfield.

The hosts took all three points with first-half goals from Ryan Colclough and Armando Dobra putting them in a commanding position.

Substitute Kane Drummond then scored a late third to round off a good day’s work for Paul Cook’s men.

Tranmere struggled to create clear-cut opportunities throughout, while the Spireites could have added to their tally in what was a dominant display.

Tranmere manager Adkins was not happy with the performance levels of his side throughout as they failed to impose themselves on Chesterfield.

He said: “The result is not good enough. It was challenging conditions for both sides with the wind and we wanted to play out from the back and press.

“In the first half we were OK and then we’ve given the ball away and they’ve counter-attacked, and we should have stopped them for the first goal.

“Then just before half-time, the two centre-halves have gone and collided with each other, so we go in at half-time 2-0 down, knowing it’s going to be a difficult second half.

“We made four changes in the second half to go and try and score a goal, but it just ended up being corners for us.

“We were trying to play through but ultimately, it’s not good enough and it’s up to me.

“I am just disappointed with the two goals we have gone and conceded as they were avoidable and we should have stopped them. It just changed the complexity of the whole game.

“We tried to affect the game more in the second half by passing the ball a bit better in the second half which we did do but we didn’t score.”

Assistant manager Danny Webb was delighted with the performance the Spireites put in.

Webb said: “It’s sometimes a bit sweeter, a bit more enjoyable when we’ve had some performances and results that did not go our way.

“What’s important now is that the lads appreciate how hard they worked as a few lads were walking and wounded, a few had niggling injuries, but they played through it for the cause.

“Colclough was back to his best, not that he’s been away from it, but obviously with the injury he has been in and out of the team, but he started today and scored a good goal.

“The clean sheet was massive as we didn’t want them to get a scrappy goal at the end as it would have put a little bit of a dampener on the day.

“It’s been a really good day and you’ve got to enjoy these days.”