Chesterfield striker Will Grigg sets himself ambitious goals target for first season in League Two

The 33-year-old, who is playing in League Two for the first time in his career, returned from an ankle injury to come off the bench in the 3-0 win against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday. He has scored one goal so far but he is confident he will start hitting the back of the net regularly soon.

“The 20-goal mark as a striker is always your target,” he told Sky Bet. I’ll be trying to get to 10 and then seeing where I go from there. I personally feel I should’ve had four or five already. I’m the type of player that it doesn’t matter what league I'm in. The way I play and the chances I get will be similar – I'm a box player that stays between the sticks. I’ll be there if the crosses come in. There’s so much quality in this squad, and I believe in the players around me to create chances – and then it’s my job to take them. I’m more than confident I’ll be able to contribute to the side and get a few goals this season.”

The opening games of the season have highlighted an increase in physicality compared to the National League. Opposition teams have tended to be taller and stronger to those they faced last year but Grigg says they can match anyone.

“The physicality of League Two is something that has hit us,” he said. “We’re not necessarily the biggest side in the league, but we believe that we can compete and battle. There are teams that have been very direct, and the styles of play have been different. It’s nothing we didn’t come up against last year, it’s more the quality teams who are more organised, and there are some quality individuals in the league. In terms of physicality, we’ve got more than enough to be able to compete with that.”

Chesterfield have made a good start to the season, sitting ninth in the table after eight games, but like most people Grigg can’t help but feel they should have more points based on their performance levels.

He explained: “It’s been an interesting start to the season for us. We’ve not had the best of starts ever, and after the first five games, we fully believe we should’ve won all five of them – it's one of those things in football. A bit of a quality on both sides of the pitch has made the difference, and we don’t quite get as many chances at the top end of the pitch. In terms of performances as a whole, we’ve done more than enough to warrant a few more points than we have so far.”

Chesterfield are the favourites with Sky Bet to win the League Two title but Grigg is not getting carried away.

He added: “We’ve been watching Wrexham and Stockport and have seen what they’ve done – we built a team last year that wanted to compete at this level, it wasn’t just about getting promoted from the National League, it was about moving forward. I think the club has done that in terms of the transfer window, and the club. We take every game as it comes, but we want to be successful and do everything we can to get to where we want. We feel like we should’ve won the first five games, and there’s no reason why we can’t now go on a good run.”

Chesterfield are back in action on Tuesday night away at Bromley.