Why Chesterfield's John Pemberton has been left "disappointed" at having to start player recruitment from scratch

The Chesterfield caretaker boss says he has had to start player recruitment from scratch after taking over from John Sheridan last month.

He has signed Burnley defender Jordan Cropper and Notts County goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons on loan deals until the end of the season.

But the 55-year-old says he is having to call in favours to further bolster his squad.

"The disappointing thing for me is there is no record really of anybody,” said Pemberton

"If you go somewhere you have got a list of people who we have been looking at and there is not any so I am really starting from scratch.

"So that is why I have spent a lot of time ringing up the people I know, calling in some favours if I can and another thing is seeing who is available.”

Pemberton is understood to be looking at the possibility of signing a striker with Mike Fondop suspended for the next three matches.

But one player he is hoping to sign will only become available when his parent club bring someone else in.

"The January window is not a great window," said Pemberton.

"We have got to wait until the end of the window to see what happens because movement generates movement.

"It is one of those where you just have to be patient with it.

"We have got a relatively big-ish squad and it is a little unbalanced."