A few takeaways from the season so far for Chesterfield

A sluggish start, rubber-stamped by rumblings of discontent after a poor, poor day at Rotherham, has been followed by a gradual upward curve in results and entertainment flattened only by a luck-less defeat at Cheltenham last time out.

Here we take a look at a few aspects of the League Two season so far.

The start

Taking a step back and looking at the opening seven league fixtures, it hasn’t been an easy first couple of months.

Chesterfield have played four of the current top seven and beaten two of them in York and Salford. They should have beaten Cheltenham although it is hard to say deserved to get the better of Barnet. That was definitely a case of a point won rather than two lost.

There’s the early double-header with Fleetwood to throw into the mix and although they’ve gone off the boil lately, they did for Championship Sheffield United recently and are into the fourth round of the League Cup for the first time.

The early troubles

The criticism levelled at the players after the lame, error-filled defeat at Rotherham has been brought up by Paul Cook a few times since.

It frustrated him because that the team wasn’t being cut a bit more slack. It wasn’t yet the real deal, the squad jigsaw had missing pieces, new on-field partnerships needed lubrication and time.

There was a heavy reliance on established players and not enough quality back-ups, certainly in attacking positions, to make potentially game-changing substitutions.

Not many people seemed to know it at the time but there was something of a hangover from last season, certainly amongst some of the fan base.

What aggravated that hangover was that the first two matches of this season played out similar to the two play-offs with Notts County.

There was a feeling of history repeating itself, of things going a little bit stale, of the established ways coming up short.

Where’s the Plan B, where’s the flexibility, what about playing two up front, asked some.

“In Cook we trust,” fired back the believers and that confidence has been justified to an extent since the Barnet game.

Chesterfield are moving the ball better and quicker and getting in behind defences rather than playing in front of them.

The loans

The smart January loans business of last season in the shape of Braybrooke, Swinkels and Curtis from Leicester, Aston Villa and Sheffield United respectively has been well documented.

The shame was they weren’t in at the start to help turn all the draws into wins.

This time Chesterfield have got some telling loan business done much earlier with another handy trio in Louie Marsh, Joel Randall and Kiano Dyer.

Marsh has been brilliant so far, adding another layer of threat behind Lee Bonis.

Cook’s style of play – getting the ball down, crafting opportunities – suits his clever feet better than that at his parent club Sheffield United.

Marsh has five goals from his first seven games and a knack of slipping into positions and pockets of space where he can get shots off.

Midfielder Randall arrived at the SMH behind Marsh in terms of fitness and has had his minutes built up gradually.

He has shown some lovely touches and the tools to unlock stubborn defences, the type Tranmere will probably bring with them on Saturday. He’s also got goals in him and his untapped potential is matched perhaps only by the young Dyer.

The kid from Chelsea is like the kid with the ball in the school playground at times, daring others to get it off him.

"We have all got to make sure that we stay and nice calm with Kiano,” says Cook, and the gaffer has been true to his word so far.

He has been used off the bench because he’s not ready for the full-on, week in and week out demands of the grisly world of League Two.

For now the Chelsea kid remains a potential ace-up-the-sleeve to be used later on in matches.

The defence

After all the ins and outs of summer, you could argue that the defence has had to make the most difficult transition.

Handing another contract to Kyle McFadzean, who turns 40 next year, didn’t sit well with some, worried about a lack of pace and how will he cope with the rigours of a long season.

Across the piece the veteran has justified his starting shirt so far and his nous played a big part in the win at Oldham.

Jack Simpson hasn’t presented as convincing a case alongside him and made one or two costly mistakes but was much better in the shut-out against York. He needs a consistent to run keep his spot ahead of Alfie Pond.

The left-back slot remains a more straight-forward pick for Cook because of the consistency of Lewis Gordon and it’s a similar story for Remeao Hutton on the other flank.

Hutton has surely been the Player of the Season so far with his dynamism up and down that right-hand side and ability to clip in a lovely cross. Chesterfield need to get more blue shirts on the end of them.

The coming weeks

It was before my time but by all accounts it was the lost points against so-called lesser teams that hampered progress last season.

It’s still early days and the league table could be still be telling a few fibs but without tempting fate the next few weeks offer a chance to get moving.

After Tranmere this weekend there’s trips to the current bottom two, Crawley and Port Vale, on successive Saturdays.

That’s followed by Colchester United and Crewe back here and then an unappetising Friday night trip to Newport.

Not easy games by any stretch, particularly in a league where only four points separate the top half, but by the end of October there should be a better indication of a pecking order in the section.

Speaking to the Derbyshire Times last week, assistant manager Danny Webb remarked: "Teams could easily finish 17th or third, if that makes sense. You don’t really know what’s coming.

"We’re one of the favourites and rightly so and we accept that pressure but there are clubs who maybe play things down a bit at their end but in-house will be looking to be up there at the end of the season.”

For Chesterfield, twice play-off candidates, there’s no disguising the end goal. It’s been a solid if unspectacular start towards it with a hint of better things to come.