Paul Cook has challenged his players to ‘do some damage’ in the second-half of the season.

Chesterfield are 10th in the table, seven points off the play-offs and nine points behind third-placed Port Vale, who they face on Saturday, in the automatic promotion spots.

It has been a tough campaign with injuries but with players returning and with four new signings through the door, plus with how tight the division is, Cook feels they could still achieve their goal of promotion.

"It has been a strange season,” Cook told the DT. “Last season we didn’t sign a player in January, we had no real injuries and the season was just a pleasant season for everyone in terms of how it went.

placeholder image — Chesterfield are 10th in League Two.

"This season has been really, really demanding on us as a club. It started in pre-season with Ash Palmer and Paddy Madden and other lads getting injured. And it has been a slow process of setback after setback. I don’t like losing, in fact I hate it, but sometimes you have got to accept what is in front of you.”

But Cook doesn’t want to dwell on the past and he fully believes they are in a position to have a right go at trying to get into League One. He explained: "We have now got numbers back, we have now got men back, we have now got a squad of players that can compete at the top end of this division. We have still got so much to play for this season amidst all the setbacks. We want to be promoted. That is my big message to our players and supporters.”

Last season Crawley Town went on a late run to surge into the play-offs and win promotion, while Doncaster Rovers climbed from the near relegation zone into the top seven, so Chesterfield can take inspiration from them that it can be done.

Cook added: "My big rallying cry is, 21 games to go, can we do some damage? Last year it was Crawley and Doncaster. We don’t know, but I will tell our fans we are going to do our best to give it everything we have got.”