Chesterfield's quality shone through, admits Kettering Town boss

The Poppies, two divisions below the Spireites, only trailed 1-0 at half-time but they were blown away by the Blues in the second-half.

Leese said: “It was the toughest draw of the round. It was a big ask today and we have come up short.

“It was a difficult game, it was a big ask, but what I will say is that there will be teams in the National League who come here and have that done to them as well so let’s not be too hard on ourselves. For all intents and purposes they are a League Two or even a League One side. If you go through their squad list you would stop reading after three or four players because they have all been playing with Football League experience.”

He continued: “What we set out to do we did well for an hour but we didn’t do it completely right. When we got the ball back we didn’t retain it. We were pressed but we didn’t do enough with the ball when we got it back so that is my big disappointment today.

“Within the five goals there are two absolutely screaming strikes that beat us. Their quality showed through. They play off one and two touch as a maximum and we didn’t step out to the ball at times when we needed to.”

FA Cup first round ball numbers in full

Chesterfield player ratings from clinical FA Cup win against Kettering Town