The Spireites will host Barnet at the SMH Group Stadium this afternoon, in the second game at home this week.
Paul Cook’s side were forced to settle for a point in their last outing against Gillingham at home on Tuesday night. Josh Koroma scored his first goal for the club in the first-half, which was cancelled out by Ronan Hale.
Barnet have made an impressive start to the season, currently sitting second. They won their opening two games before drawing with both Cheltenham Town and Exeter City.
In the Spotlight
Former Spireite Kabongo Tshimanga has been in fine form at the start of the 2026/27 season, after joining Dean Brennan’s Bees in January last season. In the second half of last season, Tshimanga netted 12 goals in 21 games.
Most Spireites fans will have fond memories of Tshimanga’s goalscoring record in the 2021/22 season, in which he netted 25 goals in 31 games in all competitions.
Head-to-head
Since 2010, Chesterfield have beaten Barnet on 12 occasions in 19 meetings. However, last time out Barnet were victorious at the Hive as Nnamdi Ofoborh scored the only goal.
The Spireites have won all of their last five home games against the Bees, with the most recent coming at Christmas time last season. A double from Lee Bonis and a late goal from Liam Mandeville secured a 3-1 win.
Man in the middle
Leigh Doughty will be this afternoon’s match official, assisted by Matthew Sowerby, Timothy Walker and fourth official, Marvyn Amphlett.
Doughty’s most recent game involving Chesterfield was in the EFL Cup as the Spireites travelled to Derby County, which resulted in a 2-1 loss.
Paul Cook’s thoughts
“I think he’s, in my opinion, one of the brightest young managers about. I think he’s transformed Barnet into a club that was just an average conference club, with the greatest respect, to title winners in the conference and then going on to probably being one of the favourites this year to go up.
“That’s great credit to Dean, his staff and how they work. He loves his footy. He’s a really good character. I’ve got total respect for Barnet as a club. I think they play football the way I really like it. They’re brave.
“I think we’ll see him tomorrow and we look forward to, please, beating him. That’s what we look forward to the most, beating him because he normally beats us down there. And we normally have a good result here.”
