How one text to Chesterfield manager Paul Cook saved midfielder's career

The midfielder, then 34, had experienced a ‘miserable’ couple of years at Barrow, with an achilles injury restricting him to just 18 appearances in total before he was released at the end of the 2021/2022 season.

Given his age and his injury struggles, the offers were not exactly flooding in for him and he thought he might have to retire.

Reflecting back on that time when he was a free agent after leaving Barrow, Jones said: "It was tough, no one was interested, no one was picking up the phone, no one was getting back to me. Nothing was coming up. It was a case of ‘bloody hell, this could be me done’."

Whilst he was without a club, Farsley Celtic allowed him to train with them a couple of times a week so he could keep his fitness levels up.

Then one message to Cook would change everything, as he came in on trial and impressed, earning himself a contract, and two years later he is now preparing to be a Football League player again.

He explained: "I text Cooky asking if he would be willing to have a look at me and said he ‘yeah, 100 per cent’ so he let me come in, I got myself really fit, proved to him how fit I was, and the rest is history.”

In his first season, Jones was not in the team to begin with but he would soon prove his worth and become one of the first names on the team-sheet as Chesterfield lost out to Notts County in the play-off final at Wembley.

Last season started similarly, with Jones not in the side, but he would return at the end of August and Chesterfield won 12 games in a row when he started.

By March 23, the Spireites were National League champions and Jones had his hands on the trophy. In a couple of months time, he will play in the Football League again, enabling him to put those dark days in the treatment room at Barrow behind him.

"I am really grateful that he (Cook) gave me that opportunity because no one else really was going to,” he added.

“Once I got that opportunity I knew I could still play and I was still fit. I just needed that one person to give me a chance and look at me and Cooky was that one person.”