Chesterfield defender a doubt for Southend United match - Spireites team news

The Spireites are top of the table by 13 points and have two games in hand ahead of this weekend’s clash against the Shrimpers, who have hopes of getting into the play-offs despite being deducted 10 points earlier in the campaign.

Centre-back Palmer missed out against Woking on Tuesday night and he is set to be unavailable again due to a knee problem he suffered against Altrincham.

Coach Danny Webb said: "Ash Palmer’s knee has come right down. Might be a game too soon.”

Ryan Colclough (ankle) and Miguel Freckleton (hamstring) are both definitely out. But there is good news on Ryheem Sheckleford (shin).

Webb told the DT: "Shecks has had his stitches out. He is available for selection.”

Southend are also one of only three teams to beat Town in the league this season so it will be a tough test.

Webb added: “Tomorrow we are playing a team with the best defensive record in the league. A team who if they had the 10 points back that they got deducted would be in the play-off places. But a team who we have more points than and scored more goals than so we have got to go into it with full confidence that we will win the game. But we only know that will happen if we do things right and keep our principles. If we can maintain our willingness to win and improve our performance a little bit from the other night we should be okay.”

Webb also said that avenging their defeat to Southend at Roots Hall earlier in the season is not the main motivation.

"Our motivation is try not to lose any more games,” he told the DT. “That is a real high demand from us.”