Paul Cook's team selection 'justified' as Chesterfield beat Dorking Wanderers

Paul Cook’s team selection for Chesterfield’s 3-1 win against Dorking Wanderers was ‘justified’ because they collected the three points, said coach Danny Webb.
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Cook opted to make five changes including leaving out recent regulars Bailey Clements, Mike Jones and Tom Whelan.

Webb confirmed that none of the trio were injured and that they could come back in at Wrexham on Tuesday night.

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“The manager just thought today it was right to make those changes and when you get the three points it justifies it,” Webb said.

Danny Webb.Danny Webb.
Danny Webb.

"There might be more changes on Tuesday at Wrexham, it might be the same team. We are reaching a tough period of Saturday-Tuesday now. We have to manage the lads properly.

"They are tough decisions that have got to be made by the manager.”

On Jones, Webb said that the midfielder was ‘rested.’

He explained: "Mike Jones is one of our older players and he has arguably been one of our best players in the last few games but sometimes you need a rest, we have got a big game Tuesday. He has been excellent and he understood the decision to give him a breather. Will he come back into the squad on Tuesday? Who knows.”

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And it was the same reason for Clements and Whelan not being selected.

On Clements, Webb told the DT: "He was rested. With him and Branden, they are both young full-backs who are learning the game. Both are going to make mistakes, both are going to have really good games, they are both going to have really disappointing games. That is another one that could be changed Tuesday.”

And on Whelan, he added: "Similar to Mike Jones really, they have been in the team constantly for a while, done really well in helping to get us to where we are.”

Late goals from Armando Dobra and Joe Quigley won it for the Spireites after James McShane had earlier cancelled out Kabongo Tshimanga’s penalty.

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"We are delighted with the win but not overdelighted with the performance from nought to 90 but sometimes you have to win when you don’t play that well,” Webb said.

"We started really well, there are loads of positives, but loads of things we want to get better at as well.

"People like Banksy got some well-needed minutes under the belt and the subs made an impact to get us over the line.

"None of us are that arrogant to think we were just going to roll over Dorking. What we showed today was a willingness to keep going, we rode the storm of nervy moments, stayed strong in our defending and then our flair players won us the game.”

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On the difficult second-half, Webb added: "I think that is natural, when it is level at 1-1 for a long period, it can get a bit edgy.

"The way they (Dorking) play makes it hard because every clearance normally falls to one of their players because they leave three up.

"The slight disappointment for me was that we were wasteful in the final third at times.”