Mark Crossley give his assessment of goalkeeper Luke Coddington's Chesterfield debut and explains how Shwan Jalal reacted to being left out

Goalkeeper Coddington signed for Chesterfield in June and made first start for the club against the Daggers.

The 24-year-old made a number of smart saves after replacing Shwan Jalal in goal.

Crossley said: “I thought he (Coddington) was excellent.

"He has waited patiently.

"Shwan was not dropped.

"I don’t think Shwan has done anything wrong. Sometimes you just change things. I think Luke came in and he gave us a lift.

“He is a different type of goalkeeper to what Shwan is. Shwan is very experienced and Luke is inexperienced but he is very quick, he is very lively, he is very enthusiastic and he just has to be careful now that he does not get above himself and carries on to perform.

“I’m a big believer that you should never have a number one goalkeeper and a number two. I never get that because if one is performing and the other one is chomping at the bit you can only get the best out of each other and that is the case we are at with the goalkeepers."

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He added: "He (Luke) is one of these guys that likes to come up to you and see his clips to see what he could do better.

“He said to me that he didn’t think he kicked the ball very well but I thought he did.

“He asked about the goal whether he should have come out and raced out a little bit quicker and I said ‘absolutely not, you did well to delay him and make him think about what he was going to do with the ball'. He did exactly the right thing.

“I have been impressed with him and I will make him better.”

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On what qualities Codddington has as a goalkeeper, Crossley said: “His athleticism. We’re all going to say we would like him to be a couple of inches taller but I had that with Tommy Lee here and he was probably the best goalie that I have ever worked with on the coaching side.

“He makes up for that in his athleticism. He is very quick, he likes to come off his line.

“He kicks the ball reasonably well.

"He has got all the attributes.

“He has had a good pre-season, he has trained well and he has took his chance on Saturday.

“Now the big question is can he keep it?"

Jalal had played in goal for all of Chesterfield first seven matches of the season and Crossley said he took the news that he was going to on the bench like a true professional.

Crossley told the Derbyshire Times: “Absolutely top class professionally, fully understood where we were coming from.

“We have trained this morning and his attitude has been absolutely brilliant.

“He has accepted it. He has trained hard today. Sometimes a seasoned pro can go the other way.

“I was really pleased with the way he was encouraging Coddington on Saturday.

“He was not dropped. He was left out for a simple reason of freshening it up, and it is the results which have dictated that, not Shwan’s performances."