'Reaching play-offs is not an achievement,' says Chesterfield boss James Rowe ahead of crunch Halifax tie

Town know three points against Halifax at The Shay on Saturday will guarantee them a spot in the top seven.

But such is Rowe’s focus and determination he wants much more than that.

“We know that it is in our hands but I keep saying that there is no point making the play-offs - that is not an achievement - it is a marker, but it is about promotion, not the play-offs.

“Everybody seems to be obsessed about the play-offs. Yes, we want to get in there but we need to win four games to get promoted, that is how I look at it. It is a big ask but we have won six on the bounce before on two occasions this season so it is not under the realms of reality.”

Rowe expects Chesterfield to have a lot of the ball tomorrow and says they will need to be wary of the counter-attack.

“We have got to make sure the occasion does not pass us by,” he explained.

“I have no doubts we will be ready and firing come 12.30pm tomorrow.

“We need to make sure we take our moments and we will definitely have moments in the game.

“If you look at the reverse fixture here how that ended 2-1 to them I will never know. We were by far the better team.

“We have just got to make sure we try and perform at the same level against the same opposition and I am sure they won’t strike lucky twice.”

Rowe sees this as a ‘bonus’ game for the Blues considering nobody expected them to be in this position and that all the pressure is on the hosts.

He added: “We have to respect that they are a team who got in the play-offs last year and they have got experience running through their team but so have we.

“Halifax are under major pressure because last year they finished sixth so this will be seen as a failure for them if they finish out of the play-offs so we have got to manage that at the start of the game where they are going to come out firing.”