Why Chesterfield are not as reliant on Kabongo Tshimanga this season

Last season Tshimanga was the Spireites’ top marksman by a country mile, notching 25 goals, despite not playing for the final three months of the campaign. Next on the list was Akwasi Asante and Saidou Khan with seven, the latter having now departed.

This time around Town already have eight different goalscorers – the second highest in the league behind Solihull Moors, who have nine.

Asante leads the way with three, while Tshimanga, Ollie Banks, Jeff King and Liam Mandeville all have two, and Armando Dobra, Joe Quigley and Tyrone Williams have one each.

Paul Cook’s men are scoring, on average, two goals a game, and the statistics show they are averaging 17.43 shots each match – the highest in the division, and a big increase on last season’s average of 12.35. xG has also jumped up from 1.34 to 1.78 so they are creating better quality chances as well.

Despite being unbeaten and topping the table, the Blues (14) are trailing Wrexham (19) and Notts County and Solihull (both 18) when it comes to overall goals scored. Wrexham have already hit five goals on two separate occasions, Notts have smacked four past Halifax and five in against Dagenham and Redbridge, while Solihull have put four past Aldershot and Scunthorpe and five against Altrincham.

But I don’t think that is anything to worry about at this stage. The chances are Chesterfield would have recorded a high-scoring victory against Dorking Wanderers had it not been for Lucas Covolan’s red card, for example. And the Spireites have already played three of the top seven, so the fixtures have not exactly been a breeze.

The number of different scorers, the shots count and the improved xG, as well as, on paper, a more favourable run of fixtures coming up, suggests a big win is just around the corner.

Tshimanga will be welcomed back into the group with open arms, and his presence – from the start or off the bench – will create panic in the opposition ranks, but whereas last season when he got injured goalscoring became a massive struggle, this time the Spireites have threats all over the park.