Important Chesterfield statistic was attendance for Trophy tie

Saturday’s FA Trophy fixture against Basford had a potential embarrassing slip-up written all over it.

It was good to see some of the younger players get a run out and finally a goal for Lee Shaw, which has been a long time coming. Let’s hope it is the first of many.

When people ask me what’s gone wrong with that club you support, my usual answer is how long have you got? About half an hour?

I can only assume that after the latest public relations fiasco, new CEO Graham Bean has been put in place because he has an ability to write a press release and not send texts to people containing thinly-veiled threats.

Listening to the situation on Talk Sport Two, the presenters could be heard audibly gasping when they read out a statement from the club regarding the potential consequences that may occur to people attending the protest on Saturday.

The protest itself went off peacefully, as was intended, and some of the people there went to the match, others didn’t.

Although the suggestion from the club that hundreds of Nottingham Forest and Mansfield supporters would show up and cause aggravation turned out to be as laughable as it was wide of the mark.

The really telling statistic was that only 1,000 Chesterfield fans even bothered to show up for a cup game that they’d prefer not to be involved in anyway.

If the club want to know about the opinion of the fans maybe they could try to speak to 6,000 people who used to attend matches under Paul Cook.

The stay-aways are an even bigger protest than the folks who stood in the car park before the match.

There’s a significant number calling themselves “Not a Penny More” who are conspicuous by their absence.

It’s Leyton Orient next and their danger man, Macauley Bonne, is the one for Chesterfield to look out for.

He’s attracting advances from League sides, and he could move on in January’s transfer window.

He has 17 goals already this season and the Os sit on top of the table, although with our return to a little form we can be quietly confident of getting something from Brisbane Road.

The East London side suffered an alarming decline over the last few seasons after their previous Italian owner made some bizarre decisions, which contributed to their downfall.

These days they are run by a consortium put together by Nigel Travers, the chief executive of Dunkin Donuts and backed by an American investor.

Here’s hoping there might be a parallel between the two clubs in the future.