Caldwell: 'I'm proud of my players - the ref played to the crowd'

Caldwell had great success whilst at Wigan Athletic, leading them to the League One title, but he has won just two games since coming to the Proact.

The Spireites have now lost seven successive games in all competitions.

The performances had not been awful since dropping into League Two, but they are yet to get off the mark after successive defeats.

Caldwell said: “Whilst it’s difficult to take we need to keep believing that we can get our season up and running next week.

“In terms of the effort the players are giving I can’t ask for much more.

“We have to keep going, sometimes in football you go on runs like this.

“We’ve got to keep believing going into next week that we can turn it around.”

A Jorge Grant brace downed the Spireites after Scott Wiseman was sent off at Meadow Lane.

The Spireites are still struggling to create goal-scoring opportunities, despite playing three forwards.

Caldwell was left aggrieved at referee Andy Haines’ performance and added: “I thought he was poor for the whole game.

“I think he played to the crowd and their technical area. He gave bad decisions and all the half decisions went their way.

“I’m proud of the players. We defended really well, which we knew we’d have to.

“Playing with ten men is never easy, but we still played well I thought.”