Salford went into the final game in the driving seat. They knew a win at already relegated Carlisle United would guarantee them a play-off place because they started the day in seventh. The chasing pack of the Spireites, Grimsby Town and Colchester United all had their destiny out of their own hands.
But despite fighting back from 2-0 down, Salford could only manage a 2-2 draw and Chesterfield took full advantage of their slip-up, winning 1-0 at Accrington Stanley, to take seventh spot away from them.
Giving his reaction, he said: “Gutted. You don’t want to make excuses but we got here 50 minutes before kick-off because of what happened on the motorway on the way here. And then we lost Ossama Ashley early on and then Garbs (Luke Garbutt) as well, he did his hamstring after 30 minutes and got through to half-time.”
Those Carlisle goals filtered through to the Chesterfield fans at Accrington and the away end started to bounce. Will Grigg then fired Town in front to put them in dreamland.
Salford halved the deficit before half-time and then equalised with just under half an hour to go, which set the nerves jangling for the Spireites, but Carlisle held firm and so did Paul Cook’s men.
Robinson continued: “We got to grips with how they played – I have never seen a team play that way, with that many players at the top end of the pitch. We couldn’t get close to them and you have to respect that. We changed tactically and I thought we got things right. You were hoping that history was going to repeat itself with that last minute goal to make it 3-2 (like last season).
“Every single one of us has put our heart and soul into the season. I don’t think any word I say now will resonate because of the pain we are feeling. This is not going to be forgotten about. This is going to hurt me big time. I feel sick.”
Chesterfield fell out of the play-off places on December 29 and did not return to the top seven until the final day of the season after a run of just one defeat in 13. They now go into the play-offs as the form team. They face a two-legged semi-final against Walsall, while Notts County and AFC Wimbledon will contest the other semi-final.
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