Chesterfield announce pre-season friendlies against Sheffield United and Derby County

The newly-promoted Spireites will host the recently-relegated Blades at the SMH Group Stadium on Saturday, July 20 at 3pm, with Derby County then visiting on Wednesday, July 24 at 7.30pm.

The match against United is being staged as part of former Chesterfield commercial manager Jim Brown’s testimonial year. Jim, who retired last November, said: “It was an honour for me to represent both clubs and I would like to thank them both for agreeing to let this match feature in my testimonial year.”

In the same fixture last year, United won 2-0 thanks to goals from Iliman Ndiaye and Ben Osborn but Town gave a good account of themselves.

Paul Heckingbottom was in charge of the Blades that day but the task of mounting a promotion push back to the Premier League falls to Chris Wilder, who led them to the top-flight in 2019.

Derby beat Chesterfield 1-0 last year and they went on to win promotion to the Championship under Paul Warne.

As well as United and Derby, Town have also confirmed a friendly against Matlock Town on July 6.

The Football League fixtures will be released in just under a month on June 23, with the season starting on August 10.