Chesterfield's new counter-attacking style is paying off on the road

The Spireites have collected maximum points at Gateshead, Southend United, Wealdstone and Woking to put them in an encouraging position to finish third.

Those victories mean they now have the fourth best away record in the division. But before that they had only won five on the road in the league all season. So what’s been the difference on their travels recently?

It was noticeable at Southend how much more threatening Town looked on the counter-attack and that has continued into the matches against Wealdstone and Woking.

And stats from Wyscout suggest the Blues are perhaps sacrificing possession a little bit more compared to previous away games and it is paying off massively.

At Solihull Moors, Chesterfield had 57% possession. At Aldershot, they had 63%. Boreham Wood and Barnet? Both 60%. Despite their dominance they collected just two points from 12. Scrolling further back down the fixture list there is a similar theme. They again had 60% in the 1-0 defeat at Halifax, and 55% in the last-gasp loss at Eastleigh.

It is only a small sample size but the Spireites appear to have changed their style away from home. At Southend they had 43% possession, at Wealdstone they had 40% and Woking was 50%. They won all three. It could just be a coincidence, and they may rack up 60% of the ball at York Road this weekend and win, or it could be something we see for the rest of the season.

Why might they have changed? The obvious reason that springs to mind would be the signings of Ryan Colclough and Andrew Dallas, who have added pace to the side. Both are capable of carrying the ball up field and love running at defenders one-on-one. A slower, perhaps more controlled way of playing, maybe doesn’t suit them as much.

If Chesterfield do finish fourth then they would be away in the semi-final of the play-offs should they get through the eliminator. So this tweak could also have been with that mind. As I say, this little pattern could be blown out of the water at Maidenhead on Saturday, but it is worth keeping an eye on.