Chesterfield manager James Rowe hopes Dover Athletic situation gets sorted soon

Dover sit bottom of the league and are 13 points from safety after furloughing their whole squad and management team after 15 matches. They have not played since January 30.

The Whites’ chairman, Jim Parmenter, said he had to do it to ‘safeguard the club’s long-term future’ after it emerged grants would not be made available and that clubs would have to apply to Sport England for loans.

“We are operating in unprecedented times,” he said. “We have to make difficult decisions.

“The club will be unable to fulfill further National League fixtures until appropriate funding is made available.”

At the moment, it is unclear what is going to happen with Dover’s results or if they will face a punishment.

One possibility is that their results could get expunged which would mean teams who have already played Dover could have their points total reduced.

If that happens it could potentially move the Spireites closer to the play-offs because they have not played the Kent side so therefore would not be deducted any points.

The Spireites had been due to face Dover on March 23 but will now travel to Aldershot Town instead.

The Blues also have games in hand on a lot of teams after three isolation periods and Rowe is looking forward to ticking them off.

“It will be nice to balance them out and it will also be good to find out what is happening with the Dover points so we know where we are, however we can’t control that,” Rowe told the DT.

“Hopefully after May 29 and June 19 we are where we want to be.

“We have got a real chance with this group and it is a great place to be.”

When asked if Chesterfield have heard what might happen with Dover, Rowe added: “Not at the moment, we have not heard anything, only whispers at the moment.

“But I presume obviously now that the National League North and National League South are null and void, I presume the next thing is deciding what is going to happen to Dover.”