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| Matt Gilks expected to play in goal |
It's almost 12 years since we last played Chesterfield anywhere. That was in August 2003 in the Carling Cup when we beat them on penalties after a 0-0 draw at Saltergate on a night when they included former Clarets Steve Blatherwick and David Reeves.
There haven't been too many connections between the clubs in recent years in terms of players having played for both clubs; Mark Randall, who we had on loan from Arsenal, is the only one since the pair mentioned above.
However, it will be a special game for some of our players and staff tomorrow. He might not have played for them but new signing Matt Lowton is from Chesterfield and is a fan, and we only need to look back at the 1997 FA Cup semi-final for the other links.
On that occasion Billy Mercer was in goal for them and their captain, and penalty scorer, was Sean Dyche, and it is the fact that Dyche is returning to the town with the crooked spire that has captured the imagination there.
It's captured his imagination too. He's taking his family up there to show them where he played his football with a visit to the old ground he last visited himself for a dinner for the closing of it.
He said: "My kids don't know a lot about my football past. I don't do memorabilia in my house, I'm more interested in their lives, not mine."
He played around 270 games for them after signing from Forest in 1990 and was a hugely popular figure with the fans which will surely guarantee him a warm reception tomorrow, probably similar to the one he's received at Watford on his two returns with us.
Which players he's taking with him and getting onto the pitch is anyone's guess. All of Tom Heaton, Sam Vokes, Marvin Sordell and Jelle Vossen sat out Tuesday's win against Rangers but none of them are serious injuries and they'd probably have been in contention had it been a league game. It is expected that none of them will again play with the Fleetwood game on Tuesday being their most likely return date.
For anyone who has missed the news, and I'm not sure anyone could have, Jason Shackell is no longer injured but won't be in the squad. Having missed the first three pre-season games with back and calf injuries he's now passed a medical and signed for Derby.
I'm sure there will be some of the younger players involved again - all of Cameron Dummigan, Tom Anderson, Steven Hewitt, Nathan Lowe, Jason Gilchrist and Brad Jackson have so far been involved in the public games. All but Gilchrist, who has suffered a broken ankle, could feature again tomorrow.
It's a second home game of pre-season for Chesterfield who were beaten 3-1 by Hull in midweek despite taking the lead and dominating a lot of the game, particularly in the first half.
Their goalkeeper Tommy Lee was impressed and said afterwards: "I think in the first half we played really well, for 40 minutes we looked like the team that's just been relegated from the Premier league, we were creating chances and it was a positive start."
Lee confirmed that there is a new approach under manager Dean Saunders in that he must now play shorter balls out. He said: "It's a new style of play and it's not something I've been used to so far in my career. It's something I'm looking forward to doing and learning."
They kick off their league season against Barnsley and he added: "Burnley are another team that have just been relegated from the Premier League, unluckily as well, and we need to test ourselves against those teams because Barnsley's going to be similar to these games."
Ian Evatt scored their goal against Hull when they lined up: Tommy Lee, Daniel Jones, Sam Hird, Ian Evatt, Tendayi Darikwa, Dan Gardner, Sam Morsy, Ollie Banks, Jay O'Shea, Sam Clucas, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. Subs: Ritchie Humphreys, Danny Cairns, Michael Onovwigun, Jake Orrell, Emmanuel Dieseruvwe, Rai Simons, Byron Harrison, Gboly Ariyibi, Dion Donohue, Charlie Raglan, Armand Gnanduillet.
