Spireites boss LEE RICHARDSON gave his post-Rotherham view to Spireites World subscribers last night - read the highlights here

What do you make of that, Lee?

Disappointing - we've lost a "derby" game against our local rivals. Very disappointing - for the fifteen minutes before half time we performed like boys against men after going down to a free kick that was gifted to them by a back-header - a decision that confuses me - I don't know how a centre-half can think that to try a back-header in that situation is going to get us out of any trouble. So we gift them an opening goal in a game that was nip and tuck at that point.

For the fifteen minutes following that, we went under. The crowd got on top of us as much as anything. I'm saying the same things over and over again because of the youth in our team; to concede the second one just before half time was a by-product of that period. We went into ourselves, and it is that lack of experience that causes that problem.

Second half it's all us; we get the goal and we're the only team that looks like creating chances. It was a question of "Can we get the equaliser?" But it didn't come.

We have to move on and I have to keep trying to rectify one or two things. There's one or two players that may be available to us and we'll try and do it but if we can't get them in for whatever reason then we'll have to try and look at it again and work on it again.

How is Peter Leven?

He got a whack on the head, but he'll be fine.

Second half you got a goal almost out of the blue but it wasn't enough - do you feel perhaps you lacked a bit of width?

I wouldn't say that, Geoff; we were chasing the game and had chances; we did go wide on occasions and got crosses in but they didn't come to much. The game was lost in the fifteen minutes before half time. As soon as we gave Rotherham the lift of a goal, and another just before half time, the writing was on the wall.

Where now, then, with eight games left?

It is the same scenario as before. This was never a "must win" game because there's eight games to go. The disappointing thing is that for those fifteen minutes in the first half we looked like a team facing relegation, not promotion. We were rabbits in the headlights. That's a feeling that comes off the players sometimes because they are young and inexperienced. They got under for a little period - and that's all it was - but that's all you need to lose a game.

But as you know, you've signed all these young players?

At the end of the day, we're Chesterfield. We're not Chelsea. We have to get players in that we can get in, that we can afford. We've invested in areas more heavily and tried to do it on he cheap in others but that's the way you've got to do it at this level. The younger players have proved themselves to be good enough on some occasions but have struggled on others. Rotherham haven't smashed us for ninety minutes; that's not the case. We've lost it in fifteen minutes through sloppy defending for the first goal and a knock-down at the far post that we didn't win for the second. That's all we're talking about here - we're not talking about an annihilation. We're talking about a narrow defeat in a "derby" match which is really disappointing. But we've got to pick ourselves up and go again, because there's a lot of football left to play. We've got lots to aim for - I'd like the supporters to stick together with us - they were disappointed at halftime, rightly so, but they've got to stay with us for the long run because we've still got a good chance.

LEE RICHARDSON SPOKE TO GEOFF MITCHELL

FOR SPIREITES WORLD

HEAR THE INTERVIEWS FIRST AND IN FULL

ON SPIREITES WORLD