Bluffers Guide to Chesterfield
Monday, 8th Aug 2011 12:35 by Col

Chesterfield come to Spotland on Tuesday night, so we do our wiki-robbing Bluffer's Guide on the visitors to give you the lowdown on everything related to Chesterfield FC.

Chesterfield FC in a nutshell..... Having joined the Football League on the same day as ourselves, they have enjoyed a similar history to us mostly spent in the bottom two divisions, but are best known for their FA Cup run in the mid 90's when they reached the semi finals and came within a refereeing decision of making the final. However, times have changed for Chesterfield and things are looking up with their brand new stadium and a trophy in the cabinet.

Who's the gaffer..... Before coming to Chesterfield, John Sheridan's reputation was somewhat tarnished within the game and it was something of a surprise that he got back into management. A promising start to his time at Oldham went downhill, and the infamous night out at the dogs ultimately contributed to his exit from Oldham. Hindsight has shown that Oldham have dropped dramatically since Sheridan's departure, and their failings have certainly been to Chesterfield's good fortune. His first season in charge saw the Spireites finish just outside of the Play Offs, but it was last year where he enjoyed the best success of his managerial career, as Chesterfield celebrated their first season away from the Saltergate monstrosity by coasting to a very much deserved League Two Championship.

The current lot..... Coming into the new season, last year's League Two winners are arguably not as strong as they were last season, with Craig Davies heading off to Barnsley on a free transfer which was a massive blow, and he hasn't really been replaced over the Summer. Obviously, there's still plenty of quality within their squad, and the addition of the highly rated Mark Randall can only help things, but they can't be relying on Jack Lester at his age (though am sure that's a phrase I've used at least twice in pre-season previews in years gone by only to be proved wrong) They started the season with a disappointing defeat at Tranmere on Saturday, a game in which they didn't have a single shot on goal according to the post match stats.

Played for both Dale and Chesterfield...... We've managed to club together a joint Dale / Spireites XI for this game:


	Tommy Lee

Kelvin Lomax	Stan Milburn	Alan Goodall	Michael Simpkins

Simon Whalley	Deane Smalley	David Perkins	Mark Stuart

	Andy Morris	Chris Beaumont

and on the bench: Adam Rundle, Ernie Moss, Gary Madine, Chris Bettney, Dave Grant

Dull but true..... Dale's best ever win came against Chesterfield in the 1926-27 season, when we racked up an 8-1 win against the Spireites. Dale legend Albert Whitehurst was a hat trick hero in this game.

Youtube Golden Moment.... A Chesterfield fan has been a bit handy with their editing skills on this one, but who could possibly deny them? Apart from David Elleray.

class="storytext">He was a bit good..... Dale fans of a certain age will remember this innocent looking lad playing for Chesterfield back in the early 90's who looked far too young to be playing such a physical game. However, that fresh faced individual turned out to be one of the toughest players in the English game - Kevin Davies. Coming through the ranks, he seen made a name for himself as one of the highest rated players in the bottom division. Indeed, the FA Cup game between Chesterfield and Dale back in the early 90's had Kenny Dalglish watching Davies, though he didn't come and stand in the away end and its fancy toilets. His time at the top flight hasn't always been plain sailing. Success at Southampton was followed up by a disappointing spell at Blackburn, but since moving to Bolton, he has arugably become the finest player if his style in the English game, and it's been to the detriment of the England national side that he was never given more of a chance at international level. At least, he can sit back knowing he has committed more fouls than any other player in Premiership history.

Try not to mention..... Darren Brown. Not the TV magician / illusionist fella, but the former Chesterfield Chairman from the late 90's. We know one side of the story. Brown's methods of running a football club involved widespread cheating in terms of players contracts, conspiring against other clubs and the under reporting of gate receipts, and even to this day, it was a complete lack of knackers at the Football League when they issued the most minimum of penalties against the club that would allow them to still achieve promotion. But the other side of the story shows that it wasn't just the rest of football that were the victims of Brown's antics. It transpired that Brown was using Chesterfield as his own personal bank account, and the club's cash was used to financially prop up his other businesses, and he racked up over £2 million worth of debts. Some of those debts came from buying his wife a Range Rover, splashing £2,500 on a Lawn Mower, paying American Ice Hockey players' council tax and sticking a deposit down on a house. Risdale has nowt on this fella. However, justice finally caught up with Brown, and he was jailed in 2005 for four years.

Chesterfields' famous five: