Chesterfield's pre-season could not have gone much worse - but it does not mean they can't still be successful

When even the manager, John Pemberton, admits they could do with another month’s preparation then you can understand why the alarm bells might be ringing for some Town fans.

Just three matches played with one win and two defeats against lower opposition, three goals scored (all in the same game) and five conceded is all the Spireites could muster up.

Fixtures cancelled, strikers failing to score, defensive worries, injuries to key players and not to mention all the difficulties around Covid. In truth, it probably could not have gone any worse.

In contrast, Saturday’s opponents Wealdstone have prepared with 11 friendlies, including four wins, six defeats and one draw.

But there is no point, or time, in feeling sorry for themselves. Chest out, chin up, we go again.

Sometimes you can read too much into pre-season results but the reality is you can win them all and still be relegated or lose them all and still get promoted.

The concern I have is that the bare minimum aim for pre-season is to get minutes under your belt and the Spireites have struggled on that front. But again, there is nothing they can do now and it does not mean they can’t have a successful year. It will be tough, but a few wins early on will certainly put a spring in their step.

Chesterfield had a good team spirit in the second half of last season and they will have to bring that to the surface again particularly in the first few weeks when they come up against teams who are sharper.

Expectations going into the campaign are a lot lower than the last two years and, given the stop-start pre-season, they might have to be tweaked a little bit more, but at the end of the day everybody starts on zero points and they don’t have to let the last few disruptive weeks define their season.

A win against Wealdstone would calm everyone down and put the pre-season woes to the back of their mind, but given the circumstances a point away from home against a newly-promoted team would not be the worst result.

Keep the faith, and let’s make a proper judgement after around 10 games.