Friday 4th April 2014
by Dave Dove

Chesterfield return to League action on Saturday when they face Newport County at the Proact Stadium.

Winning at Wembley last Sunday would have been nice for the 15,000 or so Spireites fans who made the trip but, the 6,000 fans who will continue to support the team on Saturday, know that promotion is the prize that really counts.

With six games to go, the Spireites are currently in third place and handily placed to win that prize. On 70 points we are five points ahead of Fleetwood Town and Burton Albion and have a considerably better goal difference than both.

We shouldn't give up on finishing the season as Champions - so looking upwards - we are two points behind Scunthorpe United in second and four points behind Rochdale who are top. All teams have six games left to play.

Newport County beat Wrexham 2-0 in last season's Conference play-off final, to return to the League after a 25 year absence.

The Exiles have flirted with the play-off positions for much of this season but have now dropped to 16th place with 49 points from 39 games.

They have won only once in the last 11 games - that was at Torquay United in their last away game on the 22nd March. Their most recent game was last Saturday when they were beaten 2-1 at home by Portsmouth.

They finished the game with only nine players on the pitch; Adam Chapman was sent off for a two footed tackle and Darcy Blake picked up two yellow cards. It would appear Andy D'Urso wasn't the only referee to have a poor game last weekend; Exiles boss Justin Edinburgh has made a complaint to the Football Association about the performance of referee Steve Bratt in the Portsmouth game. Good luck with that Justin!

The Spireites went down by the odd goal in five when they faced County at Rodney Parade on 1st December last year. Danny Crow opened the scoring on six minutes for the home side and Jimmy Ryan equalised on 62 minutes.

Liam Cooper was sent off after 64 minutes when he brought down Conor Washington in the area and Adam Chapman scored from the penalty.

Andy Sandell put Newport further ahead after 87 minutes but a 90th minute goal from Marc Richards and a string of corners in injury time gave the Spireites realistic chances of grabbing a point - but it was not to be.

Exiles' defenders Andy Chapman and Darcy Blake are both suspended following their sendings-off last week. The absence of 25 year old Blake, who is on loan from Crystal Palace, means Ismail Yukubu will almost certainly start and Edinburgh has several options to replace Chapman.

The injury Ollie Banks sustained to his right foot at Wembley will keep him out for the rest of this season and possibly even the start of next season!

Other than that, the Spireites have no injury concerns - Dan Gardner and Drew Talbot are both fully fit and available for selection. Daniel Kearns who was unavailable for the Wembley match is also back in contention.

Chesterfield now have a distraction-free run in to the end of the season. After what seems like months of playing two games a week, it's largely back to one a week until the end of the season - the only exception being the two games around Easter weekend.

Six games left in which to clinch promotion and hopefully relaunch our Championship ambitions. Come on Spireites!

For more information and other CFC news, go to www.chesterfield-fc.co.uk

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