Rochdale 'best team' against Chesterfield, claims boss Jimmy McNulty

The Spireites took the points home from the Crown Oil Arena thanks to goals from Armando Dobra and Tom Naylor either side of a Kairo Mitchell strike.

“I have never been as proud in defeat as I am today,” McNulty said. "I thought we were amazing. I thought we were brilliant.

“Chesterfield are the big boys in the division and you can see why because they can score in a number of ways. They have got serious clout, serious power, serious squad depth, which is what that budget gets you – access to those players. If three star guys aren’t doing it you can bring three more star guys on and you could see that tonight in moments.

"I thought we pushed them all the way to the wire. I actually think we were the better team on the night. I thought we were the best team tonight. It is a shame that for such a brave and courageous performance we take nothing from it but I don’t feel disappointed.”

He added: "It kind of indicates where we are at versus Chesterfield when we are taking their fourth choice winger, maybe fifth choice winger, from them and he is one of our main guys. We are really happy to have him, Jez, but that is where they are at. Despite that I thought we were amazing. I thought for the whole of the second-half we had the ball and we had them in their half and we were probing constantly and they hung in.”

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