Suspension has made Chesterfield captain 'appreciate' playing more

The Chesterfield captain was shown a red card for an off-the-ball incident late on in the 2-0 defeat to Solihull Moors on Boxing Day and he was handed a three-match ban.

The centre-back had started every league under manager Paul Cook since February 2022 so his sending off ended that sequence and it also meant he missed the chance to play against Watford in the FA Cup.

On the red card, he told the DT: “I was gutted. Ultimately, whether I headbutted him or not, I let everyone down because I got myself in that situation. We were losing 2-0, I was frustrated, we both got in each other’s faces and he has gone down. I let my team-mates down, the manager down, the staff down and the fans.

"I missed three games which I potentially could have played but credit to the lads because they were absolutely fantastic to watch. I thought Miguel Freckleton was fantastic, he showed the Premier League quality that he has got. It was a pleasure to watch, we have got so many good players.

"It was reflection time for me, I realised how much I enjoy playing, I get more nervous watching, it has made me appreciate playing.”

The red card was very much unlike Grimes but he explained why he lost control for a split second.

He said: "I was frustrated because the guy I was playing against kept diving and I felt like he was trying to cheat us out of getting back in the game. I should not have got in his face. I have done it before in my career when you go head-to-head and you have a bit of fisticuffs but he went down in a heap without me touching him. It was out of character for me and it won’t happen again.”

But being in the stands allowed him to see things in games he perhaps wouldn’t normally notice.

"You see the game completely different when you up there,” he said. “The gaffer is always showing me clips of what I should do and then I watch the lads do it and I see the spaces. I am not sure I have quite got my performances back to what they were but I am seeing it, I know what is there, and I am working on it to try to get better.”

Grimes joked that he got a bit of silent treatment from Cook for a while and that he was put through his paces with sports scientist Jordan Hardy to ensure he remained fit.

He added: "I worked hard with Jordan in the off-time. Jordan is fantastic. Sometimes I don’t like him because he makes me run all the time! They gave me a little bit of breather because I had played a lot of games but every time there was a game I was running and in the gym so it wasn’t nice for me. The gaffer made it uncomfortable for me, he didn’t talk to me for a couple of weeks!”