Chesterfield set to face on-fire former Leeds United, Bradford City and Oldham Athletic striker

The Spireites travel to newly-promoted Ebbsfleet United on Saturday for the first meeting between the two clubs in three years.

The Fleet cruised to the National League South title last season, topping the division by a huge 20 points.

And striker Dominic Poleon, 30, played a massive part in that title success, smashing in 35 goals in 43 appearances, which led him to being named the National League South’s Player of the Year for the 2022/2023 season. Ebbsfleet’s boss, German Dennis Kutrieb, took home the manager of the year award.

Poleon, who has plenty of EFL experience with the likes of Leeds United, Bradford City, AFC Wimbledon and Oldham Athletic, is in his third season at Ebbsfleet, with an impressive record of 59 goals in 94 games. And he has started this season on fire too, topping the scoring charts with seven goals in six matches.

The forward has been on international duty with Saint Lucia in the last week, scoring a hat-trick in a 5-1 win against Sint Maarten in their CONCACAF Nations League opener. And his absence was clearly felt by Ebbsfleet, who lost 2-1 at Wealdstone without him.

Despite that loss, The Fleet are still positioned in the last play-off place, with four wins and four defeats so far.

But they will be without defender Chris Solly this Saturday, after he was sent off in that defeat to Wealdstone. The right-back spent 11 years at Charlton Athletic, making 301 appearances, so his experience is likely to be a big miss for the hosts.

The last time the two teams met in February 2020, Chesterfield won 4-0, with Nathan Tyson coming off the bench to score a 13-minute hat-trick. That season was curtailed and outcomes were decided on a points-per-game basis because of the coronavirus, and the Kent side were relegated by 0.002 of a point. The Spireites were lucky that they managed to collect a couple of wins just before the pandemic struck and they survived by the skin of their teeth.

In terms of Chesterfield’s team news, Bailey Clements (thigh) was expected to return to full training this week, but Ryheem Sheckleford (hamstring) is still likely to be out for a couple more weeks.