Talking Points: the league season really starts here for Chesterfield
The building blocks are going in for so many clubs at this stage of the season and with 13 new players through the door, that applies to Chesterfield as much as anyone.
It has been a slightly underwhelming start, the low a sloppy defeat at Rotherham and the high arguably last Saturday’s rip-roaring six-goal tussle with Barnet.
The tally of five points from the first five league games compares with 12 from the opening five of last season and eight the season before, which included as 5-0 dismantling of Crewe.
Different times, partly different team, and you can argue the current one has only truly taken shape with the arrivals of Louie Marsh, Joel Randall and Kiano Dyer last week.
This group is the one that Chesterfield now have to go to war with.
The fleet-footed Marsh offers hope of better times, a creator who can help give a team that sees loads of the ball a bit more poke in attack and that is needed because despite putting three past Barnet, goals haven’t been flowing.
The first two games of the season mirrored the two that ended the last one in terms of possession without penetration.
Chesterfield had 31 shots across the two games against Fleetwood in league and cup and didn’t score.
Possession has been up and around the 70 per cent mark in four of the five league games so far and in the one in which they saw a lot less of it, at Salford, they came away with a 1-0 win.
In some ways the new-look Spireites are still a puzzle.
I say new look, but the trusted shape and methods of Paul Cook aren’t about to change.
He remains committed to four at the back behind two sitters and then a threatening three behind a lone striker.
In interviews he has also spoken about “repetition,” hard graft on the training ground getting players comfortable with the preferred style. It doesn’t come overnight.
There are few more attractive teams in the lower divisions than Chesterfield when the flow and the fluidity is there and the manager deserves credit for his principles in a division where many teams go direct and play the percentages.
Some fans nevertheless have been getting restless, most notably in the tame loss at Rotherham.
Still raw from the defeat, Cook took up the issue straight away in his interview afterwards.
"I just don’t know where a lot of our supporters’ bad energy is coming from. Let’s have a reality check where we are.”
The grumbles from the stands were muted by a much better showing against Gillingham a few days later and then by the sheer entertainment value against Barnet last Saturday, even though neither produced a win.
The club’s followers are still waiting for that statement, sit-up-and-take-notice result that can get the season well and truly up and running.
At least there are more options now, particularly in midfield and attack and there has been a promise of more rotation.
Summer arrival Alfie Pond snuck into the back line to give Kyle McFadzean a rest last weekend and did well well. Jack Simpson has looked OK despite having an unwitting hand in a couple of opposition goals and Remeao Hutton gives the team real thrust down the right and clips in some inviting centres.
After two promotion near misses, the goal is automatic promotion and the investment has obviously gone in to achieve it.
With that naturally comes and pressure and higher demands from supporters.
They’ve got used to seeing their team in the higher reaches and they want to see progress, not drift.
That said, staying with the players through this time when things are still knitting together is important.
Only four teams of 24 can be successful in any one season and it is still early days. A truer reflection of the real pecking order in League Two probably won’t become apparent until well into October.
In the meantime can the gifted Josh Koroma unlock a strong run of form? Can Lee Bonis get back among the goals? Can Fraser Bryden become the handful he was in Ireland? What difference will the fit-again Dylan Duffy and Tom Pearce make?
Also, has the club truly made up for loss of the three top January loan signings who helped their drive to the top seven last term?
More questions than answers at this stage but with the transfer window snapped shut and the new squad list finalised, the 2026/27 season properly starts now for Chesterfield.