Chesterfield’s late kick-off against Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup is ‘not idea’ preparation for one of their upcoming league games.

That is the view of first-team coach Gary Roberts, who was speaking after the Spireites were drawn at home to their South Yorkshire neighbours in the FA Cup second round on Saturday, December 6. The match has been selected for full live coverage by TNT Sports and will now kick-off at the later time of 7.30pm.

Town did the double over Rovers last season, winning 3-0 away and 5-2 at home, but Doncaster had the last laugh as they won League Two title, sealing promotion to League One. After a great start which saw them near the top of the table, Grant McCann's men have since dipped in form and they are now 14th, which still represents a solid beginning to life in the third-tier.

As much as it promises to be a lively evening in front of a big crowd and the TV cameras under the lights at the SMH Group Stadium, the timing of the tie is not great for either side, with both Chesterfield and Doncaster having midweeks fixtures on the following Tuesday night, with the Spireites visiting Cambridge United, while Rovers host high-flying Stockport County.

Chesterfield will host Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup second round.

placeholder image — Chesterfield will host Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup second round.

“It is another tricky tie,” Roberts said. “A different tie to Stevenage. Stevenage want to put balls on your back-line and test you. Doncaster will play through the thirds a little bit more. Grant has done a terrific job there and we have always had good games against them. Even though the scorelines have gone for us, the games have been pretty open and, especially the second game, it could have gone either way. We wanted a home tie and we have got one.”

On the later kick-off time, he added: “Ideally, we would have liked it to have been on the Friday, with us going to Cambridge on the Tuesday, we are just thinking about preperation and rest more than anything. We will lose a couple more hours of recovery time but you can’t do anything about it. You are goverened by the television stations now, we just go with it. They pay a lot of money so we just go with it. We will just change our week up.”