LEE CLARK watched Town drop out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on penalties against Chesterfield and moaned: “We committed football suicide.”
Town fought back from 3-1 down with stoppage-time goals by Anthony Pilkington, his second of the second-round tie, and Nathan Clarke, but that cut no ice with the manager.
“We should never have been in the situation of having to fight back from two down,” he said after the 4-2 shoot-out defeat in which Pilkington and Jim Goodwin missed from the spot.
“Our defending in the second half was absolutely abysmal, and once again individual errors have been very, very expensive.
“Forget the misses in the shoot-out, because penalties are a lottery, but in regular play, we have to be much more football intelligent.
“As well as our defending, we tried to pass when we should have been shooting, and it’s something we have to rectify.”
It was a fourth successive away defeat for Town, who will be chasing a first win in seven matches when Exeter City visit the Galpharm on Saturday.
Captain Peter Clarke returns from suspension for the League I clash, while Lee Peltier, Danny Drinkwater, Robbie Simpson and Theo Robinson, who were all unavailable last night through injury or illness, are also expected to be fit for the vital clash.
