Chesterfield captain forced off in pre-season friendly win - reaction
Spireites captain Jamie Grimes was taken off as a precaution in the second-half of the win against Alfreton Town.
Chesterfield came from behind to win 2-1 at the Impact Arena on Tuesday night, with the goals coming from James Berry and Tom Naylor.
Unfortunately, substitute Grimes only managed to play 20 minutes of the second-half before being forced off.
Assistant manager Danny Webb told the DT: "With Grimesy we are not sure if it was a little bit of a dead leg or a tight thigh but we didn’t want to take any risks in these sorts of games. He seems okay, touch wood, but we will assess that tomorrow.”
Midfielder Mike Jones did not feature at all because of a tight hamstring he suffered towards the end of the game against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Will Grigg and Michael Jacobs also played no part but it is thought they were just rested.
Five new signings have come through the door so far, with Chey Dunkley the last of those on June 6. Asked about the possibility of more incomings, Webb said: "There are always names in the recruitment room that are spoken about and are watched by us and the scouting department. It doesn’t mean that they are due to come in any minute now but yeah there are always lads we are monitoring. It is up to the lads at the club at the minute to make sure the gaffer picks them come Swindon at home.”
Youngsters such as Ashton Rinaldo, Connor Cook, Ali Mohiuddin and Liam Jessop have got some minutes in pre-season. On the chances of them being involved with the senior squad when the season kicks-off, Webb replied: "Let’s wait and see. It is a different world from playing a few pre-season games to being thrown into a league fixture or a cup fixture. Hopefully they will get some game-time in the Football League Trophy, potentially, so we will see. At the moment we have got a lot of pros to choose from and that’s the priority.”
Chesterfield’s goals against Alfreton were their first of pre-season and they were enough to secure a first victory as well.
Webb said: “It is nice to get a win. The gaffer has just said in there that it is not all about results in pre-season but it is nice to get a win and nice to score a couple of goals. I thought as a team we got better as the game went on. Alfreton, to be fair, as always gave us a real stiff test. It was another good workout.
"I thought Kane (Drummond) worked his socks off and it was a good assist for James (Berry) on the counter-attack and then Tom Naylor scored from a set-piece which we did ever so well from last year as well. We have carried off where we left off last year in certain departments but, as the gaffer says, there is still always room for improvement.”
Next up for the Spireites is a home game against Sheffield United on Saturday.
"We know that Sheffield United is going to be a really tough test, as Nottingham Forest was,” Webb added. “Forest are a mid-table to top-end Premier League team, potentially, so we knew that was a bit unrealistic in terms of the opposition we were coming up against. Sheffield United are a little bit more realistic but even so we will be underdogs and hopefully we can get another win on the board.”