New Spireite showed gratitude to former boss with 29 goals

Kristian Dennis admits he was a gamble for Macclesfield manager John Askey last summer, albeit one that paid off.

And he’s hoping there will be a similar reward for the Spireites supremo Danny Wilson, who plucked Dennis from the National League and elevated him to League One.

The 26-year-old, speaking from a holiday in France, revealed he’s starting to get his head around the leap from non-league to the Football League.

“It’s just about sinking in, it took me a bit of time,” he said.

“I can’t wait to get started.

“I had a lot of messages over a few days that put it all into perspective, how many people wanted me to do well.

“I scored 29 goals last season, so I was hoping someone in the Football League would take a chance on me.”

It’s the second summer in succession that a manager has shown faith in Dennis’ goalscoring abilities.

Last year it was the man who brought him through Macclesfield’s youth team to the first team back in 2008.

“It came to the summer and the Stockport manager didn’t really want me,” he said.

“I was straight on the phone to see if John would take a chance on me for a season-long loan and I’m grateful he did.”

Since his Football League debut eight years ago, Dennis has scored goals at an impressive rate for a number of non-league clubs.

He might always have believed he could get back to the ‘big time’ but not everyone has shown faith.

“You’re going to have doubters, saying you won’t be able to do this or that, but I’m just going to get my head down and try to score goals.”