Chesterfield players experience 'one of toughest' pre-seasons in preparation for new National League campaign

The squad has endured six weeks of hard work and five friendly matches in preparation for the new National League season which starts this Saturday with a trip to newly-promoted Dorking Wanderers.

The players have been put through their paces with tough fitness drills, including runs around Holmebrook Valley Country Park, and it has paid off with a 100 per cent winning record in pre-season.

But the approach has also been ‘sensible.’

Webb told the DT: “It has been one of the hardest I have seen but without breaking them. If people have had strains and niggles it has not been ‘go on, get through it.’

"The manager has given the players a lot of responsibility to know their bodies. Some of the younger lads maybe need a bit of direction to say ‘you can’t carry on’ or ‘yes you can’ but it has been sensible and I think that shows in the lack of injuries we have had in pre-season but it has been tough.”

The Spireites have beaten a Sheffield Wednesday XI, League Two sides Rochdale and Bradford City as well as Matlock Town and Boston United this summer.

“It has been an enjoyable pre-season, whether it be playing behind closed doors at Sheffield Wednesday and getting the lads used to how the manager wants to play, to Bradford in front of a few thousand, to Boston where we are playing a team who could have been in our league this year,” Webb explained.

“It has been a great pre-season, no injuries, good performances, goals, everything is going in the right direction but we are not there yet.

“As long as you don’t get any injuries and you can see an identity then it's all right, regardless of the results.”

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Chesterfield suffered mass injuries to key players last season and they are obviously keen to avoid the same situation again.

When asked what they been doing to stop such injuries happen again, Webb added: “There are lots of reasons (why we had injuries last season), I won’t go into too much about it but I think whatever we have done, and the manager has put in place so far, it seems to have worked whether it be training methods or getting the pitch watered at the training ground during these hot days, and the load on players and recruiting players who have a history of not being injured. There are loads of reasons, there is no point doing the blame game for last year, that happened.”