Chesterfield's Curtis Weston happy to prove doubters wrong after early season criticism

The 33-year-old, who scored six goals, was named the DT’s Player of the Year and will probably collect similar accolades when the club’s official end of season awards can take place.

The experienced midfielder said it was a “mixed” and “strange” campaign for him personally, including when he was on the receiving end of some criticism from a small group of Town fans after the away defeat to Bromley in September.

“I might not always play as well as I could in terms of my performance but you will never ever not see me give 110 per cent on the pitch, for sure,” he said. “I gave 110 per cent on the pitch at Bromley and a couple of fans were arguing that.

“It was crazy because I literally went over to say goodbye to my family. One of my cousins who lives down in Kent - he doesn’t quite understand if I don’t go over and say bye - he has got special needs - he would not understand me not going over, it would probably make him worse.

“So I just went over to say ‘take care, see you later mate’ and come away. In doing that, it all got blown out of proportion. A couple of the fans were shouting stuff and he got a little bit upset. I did not react to that.”

Weston revealed that he received some derogatory messages about his cousin’s condition but a lot of “lovely” ones as well.

He also said he was “not sure” if the incident at Bromley was a turning point in his season but said it “does feel good” to win some people over.

He added: “Possibly yeah, it could have been like ‘do you know what I am going to prove a couple of doubters wrong’ but again, for me, effort-wise, which is what they were arguing, I always give that so it was a strange one.

“But yeah, to be able to turn around at the end of the season and say ‘player of the season’ is nice.”