Why injured Tom Denton will be a big miss for Chesterfield

‘We were wary of the big man up front’ or ‘we had to defend a lot of high balls into our box with Denton in there’ are quotes I could write down before the microphones have even been turned on.

It must annoy the 31-year-old and make him chuckle at the same time because he is far more talented than most give him credit for.

And, if they were being honest, every manager in the National League would at least have him in their squad.

Defenders across the division will be breathing a big sigh of relief with him ruled out for more than 10 weeks due to a knee injury.

It is a massive blow for the Spireites and despite having the likes of Akwasi Asante, Adi Yussuf and Marcus Dinanga, they will miss Dents a lot.

He is Chesterfield’s top scorer with nine goals in 16 starts this season and is still third in the league’s scoring charts despite not playing for a month.

He has already scored more goals than he did in the whole of the last campaign and is only one away from his best scoring season in a Town shirt.

At the other end of the pitch, they will miss his defensive qualities from set-pieces. As former boss John Pemberton pointed out, Stockport County’s players marked Denton...from their OWN attacking corner!

On Dents’ injury, manager James Rowe did not seem that convinced when I asked him if he would play again this season. “I hope so,” was his reply.

Chesterfield play an exciting brand of invasion football under Rowe. It is high-intensity, high energy and attack-minded. Some may have concerns whether Dents suits the new manager’s style but, at the very least, who better to bring on with 20 minutes to go when Plan A has failed?

If the Blues can go on a play-off charge, what a weapon he would pose for tired defenders in the final few weeks of the season.

The forward, referred to as the 'goat’ by the club’s Twitter admin, is out of contract in the summer and I hope it is not the last we have seen of him in a Chesterfield shirt.