Wilson: '˜We matched Saddlers until red card'

The manager admitted he hadn’t yet had a chance to study the incident on video before speaking to the press following the 4-1 defeat at the Proact.

But he said Donohue disagreed with the referee’s assessment that led to the dismissal, and in turn saw Chesterfield well beaten.

And the Spireites’ manager insisted the Saddlers players, whose celebrations seemed to spark the melee, were not blameless.

“I’ve not seen it, I want to go and see it now,” he said.

“The referee has said he saw a punch being thrown, Dion categorically denies that.

“Nothing was done to the boy who started the melee by jumping into one of our players, which I thought was a bit crass.

“I find it very difficult to fathom but I need to see it properly.”

Wilson felt that with 22 men on the pitch Chesterfield were in with a chance of a positive result.

“Over the 90 minutes, we had half an hour against 10 men and that’s very difficult against the standard of opposition we were playing against.

“It’s unfair to say the better team won because while we had 11 men on the pitch we were a match for them.

“They started the game with a lot of possession, but didn’t really do anything and we wrestled our way back into it. We created a lot of chances in the first half. I was quite looking forward to the second half, I thought we could beat them.”

That all important second goal, scored by Sam Mantom who had acres of space and ample time to pick his spot from 18 yards, was a poor one to concede in Wilson’s eyes.

He wasn’t in the mood however to criticise defender Tom Anderson for his first half own goal, or the later slip that gifted the Saddlers a third.

“I think the pass he was given was very poor. He’s on his own with a striker breathing down his throat. The ball should never have been played to him. it was hard to deal with. It put him under too much pressure,” said the manager.

“The first goal, the own goal from Tom, he’s going to have a few of those in his career. The ball has caught him flat footed a little bit but I’m not going to hold him to account for anything in that respect.”

One source of positivity for Chesterfield tonight is that results elsewhere went largely in their favour - Fleetwood, Doncaster and Blackpool all suffering defeats.

Wilson said: “That’s a bit of a bonus, you never really want to hope for that but it can help now and again. A little bit of luck doesn’t go amiss from time to time.

“We’ve come off the back of a pretty good return in terms of points over the last five games.

“We’ve got to revert back to that again.”