The Spireites are back in action this evening for their opening Vertu Trophy fixture of the season, travelling to Crewe Alexandra for a 7pm kick-off.
The game precedes home fixtures against Burton Albion and Liverpool U21 in southern group H.
Chesterfield reached the round of 16 last season, whilst Crewe were knocked out by Wrexham in the round of 32.
Crewe started the season well with four wins out of four, but after back-to-back losses against Gillingham and Swindon, they’ll be hoping to get back to winning ways.
The gaffer’s record
Across eight games against Crewe, Paul Cook has an even record with three wins, three losses and two draws. The most emphatic victory came in the 5-0 away win last season, before a 3-1 home defeat in the reverse fixture.
It will be the first time that Cook has faced the Railwaymen in the EFL Trophy.
Man in the middle
Michael Barlow has refereed five Chesterfield games, with four of those resulting in wins for the Spireites. He has only covered one Crewe fixture – a 1-1 draw at Harrogate Town last season.
Over 147 games, he has given out 384 yellow cards and 14 reds.
Danny Webb’s pre-match thoughts
“We want to win the game, we’re taking our full squad. There may be one or two youngsters involved, but we want to win the game.
“It’s a good time to give players some game time that haven’t had as much, but it’s still a team that we think could win a lot of League Two games, let alone a game in the Vertu Trophy. A lot of lads that were involved Saturday will certainly be involved, if not starting.
“I know when they beat us here last year, I think they probably believed they can go on to kick on and sadly for them, they drifted away and we went the other way and kicked on, that’s just how football works.”
