IT'S taken us all a week to get over the home defeat to Portsmouth last Saturday.

It was a very frustrating day because, if we’re honest with ourselves, Pompey should have been there for the taking.

The penalty decision and the red card for Adam Chapman cost us the game.

The penalty seemed very harsh looking at the TV replays but we obviously can’t have too many complaints about Chappers’ dismissal.

It was a moment of madness and he rightly apologised to the lads and to the gaffer after the game.

I was right there on the spot and I tried to talk the referee out of it but it was pretty inexcusable really and it was one decision the ref got right.

The positive thing is that we showed a lot of fighting spirit in that game and I honestly thought we were going to nick a point, even after Darcy Blake got his second yellow card.

Portsmouth are in a lot of trouble and you could see they were nervous but it wasn’t to be.

I wasn’t in the dressing room afterwards because me and Darcy had to do a drugs test straight after the game.

It was a nightmare, especially after that result. I thought they were taking the p***!

Me and Darcy were sat upstairs from the dressing rooms for an hour and a half after the game finished.

We were so dehydrated that we couldn’t urinate but we had a bit of a laugh with the testers and it was nice that they had a sense of humour about it.

It wasn’t an ideal way to end the day though, and we will no doubt have another tough test this afternoon.

Chesterfield are obviously one of the top sides in the division and they’re in with a real shout of going up automatically.

But that means that the pressure is all on them. They’ve spent a lot of money and they’ve got a lot of good players.

I know quite a few of them and the manager Cooky as well and they expect to go up, which brings its own pressure.

We need to exploit that and use it to our advantage. We will probably stay up without winning another game but they need the points desperately.

They don’t want to be extending their season into the play-offs and they’ll be treating all their remaining games as cup finals – just like the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final they played in last week.

We had a good win over them at home in December so we know we can beat them.

But they were probably the better side that day and we know we’ll be in for a tough afternoon.

I’ve said all season that I think Rochdale are the best side in the division and if they don’t win the league I’d be surprised but I think Chesterfield will go up as well.

The gaffer went for Burton and Jimmy Dack said Scunthorpe and they’re all up there.

Whatever happens we’ll have a big say in who goes up automatically and who has to slug it out in the play-offs like we did last season.

After the Spireites today we’ve got Plymouth at Rodney Parade on Tuesday and we’ve still got to play Burton, York and Rochdale as well.

The only teams we face who aren’t involved at the top are AFC Wimbledon and Wycombe.

And Wycombe are in deep trouble at the bottom so that won’t be an easy task either.

We haven’t got as much to play for but we always demand the maximum from ourselves.

I don’t know why we’ve struggled for consistency over the past few months.

If I could put my finger on it I’d be up there with the likes of Jose Mourinho and the mighty Brendan Rodgers as a Premier League manager.

But it certainly isn’t through a lack of effort and hopefully we can give our travelling fans something to cheer about come 5pm today.