Ex-Celtic star Caldwell axed at Chesterfield

GARY CALDWELL made a desperate plea to be given more time as Chesterfield manager before he was axed at the weekend, but the club insisted they had to act now.

The former Celtic, Hibs and Scotland defender was sacked by the Derbyshire outfit after a disastrous start to their English League Two campaign.

They sit second bottom of the Football League after just one win in eight following their relegation last term and Chesterfield director Ashley Carson revealed they had to ignore former Wigan boss Caldwell’s plea for a stay of execution.

He explained: “I don’t think anyone can be shocked. As I said to Gary we’ve given him absolutely everything.

“He’s said we’ve been brilliant, he couldn’t ask for any more, but he’s asking for a few more games – that can’t happen.

“You’ve got to judge what the fans want as well and I’ve said before that it would take a fan decision as well just to tip it over the edge.

“When you get a response like that from the fans today, we owe it to them to call it a day.

“You can’t leave it more than eight games and so on the eighth game we find ourselves second from bottom and that was it, decision made.

“I’m disappointed, he did interview well, he came in and we had high hopes.

“We don’t want to sack managers, it’s a costly business but we cannot drop out of this league. It would be unthinkable.”