Chesterfield boss James Rowe 'proud' of performance against Torquay United - but annnoyed by officiating

Connor Lemonheigh-Evans gave the visitors an early lead and Billy Waters added a second with 15 minutes remaining which was harsh on the Spireites.

The Blues had some good chances of their own with George Carline and Adi Yussuf having efforts cleared off the line among others.

Town, with just one win from their last seven, drop to eighth and are now two points off the play-offs with five games remaining.

“I am proud of the performance,” Rowe said.

“If I had come away with a point I would have been really disappointed

“If you looked at that game as a neutral and you did not know what the league standings were you would not think they were top and we were seventh at the beginning of the day.

“They (Torquay) started brightly in the first 20 minutes but from then on it was all us.

“Forget the little breaks at the end because we are gambling, they probably had two or three final third entries in the whole of the second-half and leading up to half-time we were completely in the ascendency.”

The Spireites boss was disappointed with the type of goals they conceded again and called on his team to start taking their chances.

“We have got to be more ruthless,” he explained. “We weren’t cut-throat enough.

“We have conceded nine goals in the last four weeks and seven out of nine are from set-plays so second-phase is not good enough.”

Rowe felt there was a foul in the build-up to Torquay’s second goal and believed there should have been more than the six minutes added on at the end of the game.

“I will get in trouble but I have never known a lack of game management,” he added.

“How they have only added six minutes on, there should have been 12 added on.

“There were balls behind the goal and they were running past them and the referee did nothing about it and then he added six minutes on and there were six subs made as well.

“It is happening consistently and you can’t talk to them. It is just absolute nonsense.”