Chesterfield boss John Sheridan hopes to be commiserating a former Sheffield Wednesday colleague over drinks at full-time today

The Chesterfield manager was at Hillsborough when Harrogate boss Simon Weaver was a young player serving his apprenticeship.

Sheridan plans to have a drink and a catch up with his opposite number after today’s National League clash at the Proact.

But ideally, he’d like Weaver to be drowning his sorrows after a Spireite victory.

“The manager was an apprentice a few years ago when I was at Sheffield Wednesday, I know him and I’ll have a drink with him,” said Sheridan.

“He’s done brilliant there, really well.

“Hopefully I’ll be saying unlucky and I hope you finish the season strongly.”

Today’s visitors are a team who started the season like a house on fire, going 11 games unbeaten after winning promotion to the division.

Inconsistency has led to them dropping out of the play-off positions in recent weeks, but Sheridan says they’re still formidable opponents.

“A good team doing really well,” he said.

“Tricky opponents.

“I’ve watched a few of their previous games, they’ve had a couple of set-backs with results but not so long ago they were pushing for the top four.

“Another tough game.

“Play-offs, probably even automatic is still the aim for them.”

With all that said, he reiterated the message he’s given on a weekly basis since returning to manage Chesterfield.

“We’re at home, I don’t care who we’re playing, I expect us to win.

“We go in with the belief that we’re going to.

“I want the players to think like that.

“We’re well aware of their strengths, we’ll give all that information to the players and hopefully they’re switched on.

“We need the points a lot more than they do at the moment.”