Chesterfield can't afford slip-ups if they are to catch Notts County and Wrexham in title race in 2023, says Spireites coach

The third-placed Spireites go into 2023 11 points behind leaders Notts County and trail Wrexham in second by seven points but the Blues have games in hand on both of them and still have to play them again.

"It has been a really good season so far, it is just a shame the other two teams are just doing a little bit better than us,” assistant manager Danny Webb told the DT. “You can’t criticise them (Notts County and Wrexham) because they are having a right go.

"When you look at the results after the game it is a bit of a kick in the gut when you see they have all won but if we had not won then that would have been a bigger kick in the gut.

"We can only focus on us and hope at some point they slip-up but if we don’t win and we slip-up then there is no point worrying about anyone else.”

With the margin for error very slim, the Chesterfield camp know they can’t afford many more slip-ups.

"We had a bad week when we lost the three games, then a poor performance at Halifax, if you do a few more of them you are almost handing it to the other teams on a plate,” Webb said. “We know that, we are not silly, but at the same time, I would like to think we have had a blip of sorts and they are yet to really have one, Wrexham and Notts County, and maybe their blips are to come, maybe we can be the team to cause the blip, maybe not.”

The Spireites’ title hopes will likely come down to whether they can take points from the back-to-back games against Notts County and Wrexham in the middle of January.

Webb explained: "Massive games, back-to-back or not, they are massive. It won’t be the be-all-and-end-all but if we don’t get points in those games then it puts them in stronger positions, we are not silly, you have got to play them sometime so why not back-to-back.”

Town beat Scunthorpe United 2-1 on Boxing Day and they host the Iron in the reverse fixture at the Technique Stadium on New Year’s Day.

“From an analysis point of view we all know there players a little bit more because we have seen them live against us,” Webb added.

"What you have got be careful of is, whether they had beaten us or not, they would still be going into it bottom of the league and would be seeing it as another free-hit for them, a bonus game.”