Chesterfield midfielder's absence from Port Vale draw explained

The 22-year-old spent the first part of the season on loan at National League Barnet before being recalled in early December because of the Spireites’ injury crisis. The former Alfreton Town man was a popular figure at the Bees, scoring two goals and grabbing two assists in 13 appearances.

Since returning to the Blues the youngster has done his chances of getting more regular game-time no harm at all, starting in all three matches against Bradford City, MK Dons and Grimsby Town. So it was a surprise to see him not involved at all against Port Vale at the weekend despite Chesterfield having more bodies to choose from now that the injuries are clearing up and with four new signings.

When asked about why he was left out, Danny Webb told the DT: “It was really tough. We can’t really moan about the tough decisions picking the bench because we had a different type of tough decision a few weeks ago at Bradford with picking the bench. We were to-ing and fro-ing with it. And not just Bailey, quite a few lads could argue that not only should they be on the bench but probably should start because we haven’t won for a bit but that is part of football. Bailey trained this morning and he was excellent. It is certainly nothing he has done wrong. We just felt that with Paddy Madden and Kane Drummond, you have got attacking options there which we hoped would get us over the line today but it wasn’t to be.”

Chesterfield return to action on Tuesday night against Bromley, who are one place and one point below them in the table, with both sides having been promoted together from the National League last season.