'Chesterfield's season is now in their own hands,' says our Spireites fan writer

Out of the relegation zone for the first time since November is a good place to be after everything the club has been through, writes our Spireites fan columnist Roland Gent.
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If there is one thing John Pemberton knows how to do it is bringing home the bacon in a relegation six-pointer.

The Blues have faced a series of mini ‘cup finals’ against relegation rivals since he took over; Chorley, Ebbsfleet, Wrexham, Eastleigh were all beaten and a draw against Fylde have turned the club’s fortunes around.

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The next home game against Maidenhead is another one of these ‘do or die’ fixtures and Chesterfield must be getting used to them, whereas our opponents clearly are not.

From a fan’s perspective our day out on the train to Chorley was one of those unique experiences which will live long in the memory but hopefully we will never repeat.

Going past Bolton Wanderers’ ground was fairly sobering as it was not too long since we were playing there.

Whilst I may commend Chorley for giving the world the Chorley Cake and the quality of the pies in the ground was tremendous, some of the other facilities inside Victory Park could best be described as inadequate.

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The general consensus was that a decent joiner could have a field day doing up the ground and most agreed that if they had had better knowledge of the layout of the place, they might have been tempted to clamber over the grass banking on one side of the pitch and get in for free.

Chesterfield's Tom Denton headed the Spireites in front against Chorley.Chesterfield's Tom Denton headed the Spireites in front against Chorley.
Chesterfield's Tom Denton headed the Spireites in front against Chorley.

On the bright side there are not many grounds in the Premier League where you can have a look at someone’s allotments as you walk to the match, however those are the peculiarities of non-league football.

Dover away next week and I would be more than happy with a point from that one.

Maidenhead play Stockport on Saturday and Wrexham are away at Barrow, so there’s certainly a big hope that points will be dropped by our rivals and it is a cliché but Chesterfield’s season is now in their own hands whereas at Christmas it looked like it was not.