Chesterfield fans writer says: If only play-off team from four years ago could have been retained

Sam Clucas in his Chesterfield playing days.

It’s only four years ago that we played Preston over two legs in that play-off semi-final, but it seems like several lifetimes ago. Then manager Paul Cook is now at Wigan and keeping them in League One seems a possibility.

Goalie Tommy Lee had to quit due to a shoulder injury and is now an academy coach at Sheffield Wednesday.

Tendayi Darikwa was sold to Burnley and is now in his third season at Nottingham Forest.

Ian Evatt is now the Barrow manager, having taken over temporarily at the Proact as we slid into oblivion. It goes without saying that the team from Cumbria are higher up the division than we are.

The 2015/16 player of the year was Sam Hird, who is now centre back at Barrow.Former left back Dan Jones went to Notts County, who joined us in the Vanarama, and he is now back in the Football League at Cambridge. Pivotal player of that side was Sam Morsy, who we sold to Wigan where he’s back with Paul Cook.

Morsy’s partner, Jimmy Ryan, went to Fleetwood on a free transfer, then to Blackpool and now, aged 30, is at Rochdale.

Attacking midfielder Jay O’Shea, bizarrely loaned out to Sheffield United to help them get promoted, then went to Bury and is now playing in Australia for Robbie Fowler’s Brisbane team. Gary Roberts is back with Paul Cook at Wigan, Dan Gardener is at Oldham Athletic and Clucas, as we know, has been at Hull, Swansea and now Stoke. Sub for that game, Armand Gnanduillet, is now scoring goals for fun at Blackpool.

Some of these players used to get stick from the crowd at the Proact, so it’s a case of be careful what you wish for, you never know how things can go in the future.