Lester bemoans lack of quality from Chesterfield in defeat to Stevenage

A ‘freak’ goal, in Lester’s words, was the difference between the sides - goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale’s clearance rebounding off Ben Kennedy and finding the net.

But even taking that misfortune into account, he didn’t feel his men deserved a win.

“I think 0-0 would have been about right,” he said.

“It’s a freak goal, I don’t think they were going to open us up, I thought our shape was very good.

“We knew where they would be attacking us, we knew their strengths and we nullified that.

“We needed a little bit more energy ahead of the football.

“The quality wasn’t there today, just the basics weren’t done well.”

Lester’s men went more direct than they would ordinarily, in a bid to avoid the traps set by their visitors.

But with lone striker Kristian Dennis looking very isolated up top, it became a very scrappy affair with a lack of cohesive attacking play from the Spireites.

“Stevenage set traps for you and allow you to play the first one or two passes and we spoke about that and went a little bit more direct than normal, we didn’t want to get caught in traps,” said the boss.

“They did that very well down at their place, so we were a little bit more direct than we’d like to be, but we didn’t land on the second balls enough.

“You’re not expecting Kristian Dennis to win the header but you’re expecting him to compete and then we’ll play in their half.

“I think we were playing too long into him. There wasn’t enough energy ahead of the football to give better options for the man on the ball so we ended up going a little bit long.

“I think when we switched the ball wide to Joe and he could come inside and the midfielders could join in it was a bit brighter, but it wasn’t great.”

Having won two on the bounce before today, Chesterfield were out to make it three consecutive wins for the first time since April 2015.

Despite the disappointment of today’s defeat, Lester says next week’s visit of Crawley presents a chance to put things right.

“It’s trying to find the consistency in performances,” said Lester.

“We wanted to win three on the bounce, which would have been nice, but we’ve got another home game against Crawley, results were good for us today so if we go and win that game everything is good.”