A snowy Saltergate was the venue for an extended Spireites Player preview ahead of the now postponed trip to Northampton. John started the interview with an injury update on Drew Talbot and Jack Lester
John told Player "Drew Talbot got a bad knock but luckily its not broken and he's done his ankle ligaments so he will be out in four to six weeks. Jack's still recovering from the tackle at Lincoln and he's recovering well and should be ready for Torquay."
John then talked about the difficulties in preparing his side for the game in artic conditions John continued
" We have done the best we can in preparation for Northampton but there is alot of snow on the pitch here. We have let ourselves down recently results wise. So we now find ourselves in ninth and we have to roll our sleeves up and there are twenty three games to go and there will be alot of twists and turns to come yet. I am confident we can get to where we want to go but it will take alot of hard work."
The transfer window open and the Spireites have seen the last of Dave Perkins, Mark Little and David Somma for the time being at least after there respective loans finished last weekend. The Spireites squad though has been bolstered by the return from a loan spell at Darlington of Danny Hall and Paul Harsley. John told player
"I want to bring in three or four players if I can get them. I have enquired about them but I haven't pushed it to much because of the lack of training and doubts over Saturdays game. Hopefully next week we will have a few of them here on trial. Sadly the situation here budget wise means the players we have had on loan, we can't afford to do anything about them financially. I have to work to a budget and I will bring in players when I can and I won't stand in the way of players who feel they will benefit from football elsewhere."
The question though on most Spireites minds is could Donal McDermott return? John answered that question and told Player
"I have been in touch with Manchester City about Donal but there are a lot of clubs in the Championship and League One who are ringing them about him. I would love him back here and Man City have promised to keep me informed so you never know, never say die."
One statistic this season that is unwanted is the strange fact that the Spireites have only come back from behind to get points once so far this season.
John continued "We have only come from behind to get a point against Shrewsbury at there place. It's about the players at the end of the day. They have to show some character and belief and just get on with it. Whether we have the right belief and character out on the pitch I don't know. But its something we have to improve and at the end of the day our away form has let us down this season. But we have to stay together now and we have twenty three games left and if our away form had been better we would have been in a very very healthy position. Alot of people have said we are have been the best team they've played but we haven't been the best team over our last five or six games and our results and points tally haven't been good enough.
I am the manager and I will get judged on the results and I will stick to my beliefs. So if we do well I will get the plaudits and if we are losing I am picking the wrong players. So if I get the sack I get the sack I know what kind of football will get us out of the league. I know I am bringing in loan players because we have alot of players under contract. I would love to tie down some permanent signings but financially we can't do that at the moment . There are alot of contracts up in the summer which might make my job a bit easier then. What i will say is that all the players have worked hard so credit to them for that. But I will be working hard to try and get a settled side but to be honest I am not sure what my best side is.
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