Chesterfield boss Paul Cook desperate for team selection consistency

Chesterfield have been decimated by injuries, highlighted by the fact Cook has only been able to name an unchanged line-up three times and they have had 10 different centre-back partnerships. Right-back has been a problem with Devan Tanton, Ryheem Sheckleford, Vontae Daley-Campbell and Janoi Donacien all having issues, as has the right-sided centre-back position with Chey Dunkley, Tyrone Williams, Kyle McFadzean and Ash Palmer all being injured at different periods.

During his near 20 years as a manager, Cook has never been one to chop and change, believing that consistency and repetition is the key to relationships being formed on the pitch. Although he went against that last season as he made numerous changes week to week as the Blues cruised to the National League title, that was because he felt it didn’t matter who he selected because his squad was so strong and everyone could come in and do a job.

There will at least one change in the starting line-up for Tuesday’s night trip Colchester United because Donacien was forced off in the second-half of Saturday’s defeat to Crewe with a knee injury which Cook said ‘didn’t look great.’

"Throughout my managerial career I have always been criticised for not changing teams,” Cook said. “I think in the last 18 months I have probably changed teams more times than I have in my whole managerial career. This year has been unprecedented. I have never seen anything like what we are going through at the club this year. But that is part of everyone’s miserable story as managers when we are feeling sorry for ourselves. It is a good job I get such good support from Phil and Ash (Kirk) because of how much of a strong depth of squad we have got. It was only over the Christmas period where we really struggled for players. But some of the games we have lost did not have anything to do with injuries, some of them are matches we should not have lost. But we are where we are.”