Chesterfield record 'positive result' against Wigan Athletic in behind closed doors match

The frendly game at the Latics on Monday afternoon was organised so that players who have not had many minutes so far this season could get some action.

The fixture was ideal preparation for the Spireites who may have to rotate the squad with two matches against Barnet and Altrincham over the bank holiday weekend.

"We got some minutes into the lads on Monday, the lads who have not been playing, so everyone is prepared and raring to go,” first-team coach Gary Roberts said at Thursday morning’s pre-match press conference.

"It was a good run-out, good minutes for the lads.

"Some of them have probably not played 90 minutes for a good while, even in pre-season from Bradford and Boston onwards the team has pretty much been the same. It has been a long time and they have trained really hard.

"As I said last week the group that is out of the team at the minute have been absolutely top drawer and it was no different on Monday afternoon down at Wigan.

"We put a great show on, played really well, competing against high-calibre players, and they stood up to the challenge and got their minutes in and performed really well so it is another pat on the back for the lads who are not in the team at the minute.”

Wigan are of course managed by Paul Cook’s former assistant Leam Richardson, who led the Latics to promotion to the Championship last season.

Roberts understandably kept his cards close to chest when asked about more details from the game, but he did say it was a ‘positive result’ for Town.

He added: "We have gone to Wigan, obviously Leam (Richardson) is at Wigan, we set a game up with their lads who are similar, who have not had enough minutes, so they had a full first-team out. It was a great test and we need to get more, we need to keep our players topped up with minutes for when they go in the team. They could be playing Friday or Monday, this team could change totally. We trust everyone of our players who played on Monday and they highlighted that with the performance they put in.

"It was a positive result, it didn’t really matter about the score, it was all about the minutes and the lads stood up and did great against a very strong Wigan team.”