Spireites defender Jack Simpson adjusts to life on and off the pitch in north Derbyshire

Life many miles from home can take some adjusting to for a professional footballer.

When they move from one club to the other, it’s not just the task of playing in a different team with a new manager and unfamiliar team-mates that has to be got to grips with.

The time outside matches and training sessions is another matter, the side of life supporters don’t see such as sorting out where to live and adapting to new routines in strange surroundings often many miles from family.

Jack Simpson, born in Weymouth, has been used to that in a career which started down on the south coast at Bournemouth and has brought him to Chesterfield via Glasgow Rangers, Cardiff City and Leyton Orient.

A few months into his move to north Derbyshire, things are clicking in to place.

“It has been OK to be fair,” he said. “Obviously you are quite far away from home and I probably won’t see my family too much. It is quite far for them to come up here.

“In the past when I have moved further up north it has been tough at times.

“My partner has moved up here with me, my dog as well. We go out for walks and there is so much of that around here.

“In terms of the spare time I have quite enjoyed getting to know the area. I’ve settled in now and I’ve found a place to live.

“It took a little bit of time but in general I really like it here and I think it’s easier having someone with me.

“Looking back at my career, I have been in just about every major city in the UK bar Northern Ireland I guess. I have been quite fortunate in that I have lived in some different places and enjoyed them all.”

Simpson’s new “workmates” at Chesterfield have helped him make the adjustments, although it hasn’t all been straight-forward for the 29-year-old centre-back.

An unlucky slip let Rotherham United in for their winner at the New York Stadium in August and an error led to a Gillingham equaliser three days later.

As a defender, such incidents, however brief, are amplified.

Looking back, he says: “The whole of the Rotherham game wasn’t good for us as a team and if I don’t slip there wouldn’t be much notice taken. I don’t think there was much I did in the game that was good or bad. It was one of those performances, one of those moments.

“Gillingham was the one that bothered me and obviously that was a mistake but before that I thought I was playing really well. That’s part and parcel of being a defender; you make a mistake and it costs a goal and people are going to see that.

“I think maybe after that it can knock your confidence a little bit. The gaffer (Paul Cook) stuck with me and believed in me.”

Simpson has since fully settled down alongside a regular central defensive partner in Kyle McFadzean, remarkably ten years his senior.

They’ve helped Chesterfield, seventh in League Two, get on an upward curve hampered only by a lack of clean sheets.

“We’ve conceded too many goals recently as a back line,” said Jack. “There is a couple we should have done better with.

“We are not giving up massive chances, it is just moments in games. If we can just clean up certain moments, and we know what they are, we would be in a lot better place.

“I think the way we play sometimes, we are quite expansive and me and Fadz are left very much two v two in big spaces.

“It’s fine. We want to do that because it allows us to create the chances we do because we are able to maintain pressure in the opposition half. To be honest that hasn’t really been an issue in terms of the chances we have given away.

“It’s the second phases from set pieces and sometimes our line just not being right as a back four. We are not shipping chances or on the back foot and defending loads.”

As a defender, Simpson obviously prides himself on nilling the opposition.

Last week’s loss of a 2-0 lead at Crawley bugged him and his back team-mates in the back five, as did the concession of a second goal in stoppage time to Tranmere in an otherwise handsome win two weeks ago.

“We don’t got into games wanting to concede one or two,” he says. “Even the second one against Tranmere, when the game was done and it wouldn’t affect the score, we weren’t happy about that.

“You aren’t always going to keep clean sheets - that’s football - but having that mindset whether we’re 1-0 up and holding on or 4-0 up, just taking pride in our work and taking clean sheets. It is something we have spoken about and worked on, making sure you are always switched on.”

After a run of free midweeks without a game, Simpson welcomes a rush of action with three games in eight days, starting away to Port Vale tomorrow.

“The gaffer has spoken about it, that these games are huge,” he added.

“They’re coming thick and fast and we like that personally because it’s an opportunity to move up the league.

“We have dropped points in a few too many games and we should be right up there. There has been some really positive signs the last few weeks in terms of how we want to play.

“We need a statement win, and a statement week really, to put ourselves right at the top end of the league and kick on from there.”