Britain's recent poor weather hindered Chesterfield's chances of progressing past the third round, when Darlington seemed to be the fitter and quicker of the two during the Spireites 2-1 defeat on Tuesday. Afterwards, Dave Bentley knew his Chesterfield side could of done a lot better and now will have to wait another year for chance of Cup success.

It was the third time the fixture had been arranged but the only time the pitch had been deemed playable. Chesterfield were hoping 'third time lucky' would be the case, but it wasn't to be at Warminster Road. Youth Manager Dave Bentley made no excuses for his team's poor first half display;

"We set off very, very poor in the first half, we didn't get our usual game going, I don't know if that's to do with us having a break for a few weeks because I think it was the 31st January we last played a match. I'm not making any excuses as we knew what it was all about. Darlington were out of the trap a lot quicker than we were and deservedly took the lead because I think they got on top quite strong in the first period. In the second period we sorted a few things out at half time, we got on the front foot a little bit more and for 22 minutes I thought we were really outstanding, we got back in the game. Jimmy Adcock scored a good goal after 12 minutes and then from there on we looked like we were going to win the game."

"But then, their left winger was a bit special, he caused a lot of problems when we played earlier in the season at Saltergate. I thought Chris Tingay played him really well, but he had one opportunity to cross it into our box and which he did in the 23rd minute, their midfielder broke past ours and stuck it in the goal and we got beat 2-1. Like I've just said to the boys, you can't go into a game playing for just 22 minutes , it's not good enough and there's a local derby on Saturday against Mansfield at Field Mill and hopefully were going to be up for that and get a result there."

Like several matches this season, Chesterfield have had the chance to finish off teams but haven't took the opportunities they've created.

"That's been the story for us a lot of this season, we've played really well for long spells in games, created a lot of chances and just not put enough of our chances away. At a crucial stage that it got to, we'd got back into the game, they were on the back foot, we were on the front foot, and we had a couple of half chances that I thought we could of done better with. We could of possibly gone and won the game but it just wasn't to be."

The score line could have been a lot worse for the Spireites if it wasn't for the partnership duo of Richie Holmes and Sandy Moller at the back. Moller has featured amongst Lee Richardson's substitutes over the Christmas period and with this performance may get another opportunity.

"I thought they were outstanding today, Richie Holmes the captain and Sandy Moller were outstanding. I've just mentioned to the boys that they had to be outstanding because of the amount of crosses that we allowed into our box but they dealt with them very well and I was pleased with those two in particular today."

League leaders Darlington, might have the edge over the Spireites in the league as well as the cup but Bentley is still fully focused on league proceedings and believes that a win at Mansfield on Saturday could bring the Spireites one step closer to the top spot.

"We're still in there with a shout as well, we've got four games in hand on them and we've got to play them again at Darlington, so were quite looking forward to that fixture."

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