Chesterfield's youngsters could get opportunity in FA Trophy clash

The Spireites host the seventh tier side on Tuesday night, with the winner travelling to either Banbury United or Bognor Regis Town.

On Monday evening, a patched-up young Blues line-up put in a spirited performance but lost 3-0 to a more experienced Belper outfit in the Derbyshire Senior Cup third round at Staveley Miners Welfare.

United led 1-0 at half-time thanks to Josh Gregory’s strike before Richard Hanslow tapped home a second just before the hour-mark. Jack Tyson headed a third late on.

There were no senior Spireites players involved and there were a handful of other regular youth team players missing.

On the possibility of some of the academy lads being involved against Coalville, academy coach Neil Cluxton told the DT: "I am hoping so – I am not sure how many or who it is going to be at the moment – but if our boys get the opportunity I am sure they will give it their best.

"The club and the first-team staff have been really supportive of our youth team programme – both with the staff and the players – it is very well joined-up. The working link between the youth team and the first-team has been excellent and Paul (Cook) and his staff have been great with us.”

Chesterfield’s academy structure is self-funded because they no longer receive any money from the Football League following relegation in 2018.

Explaining the recruitment process, Cluxton said: "We have to scrap around for a lot of the players, a lot of the players come from our own junior system or we pick them up when they get released from other clubs whether it is 16 years of age or 18 years of age. We try to get them back on the pitch, do a bit with them and see if we can turn out one or two players.

"We have got a lot of working partnerships where we send boys away for a period of time. We have just had two lads come from Gibraltar who have been over there for six months. We are going to be setting-up a bit of a working link with a club in Scotland in the New Year. One of our lads went to Northern Ireland for six months last year.”

Cluxton also said the defeat to Belper United, who play at Step Five, outlines the quality needed if his players are to have a career in the sport.

He added: "It is great that our club is letting the youth team play in the Derbyshire Senior Cup. The first-team is at Step One, to Belper United at Step Five, and I have said to the lads you can see how tough Step Five is. If nothing else they get a reality check of where they are at and where they fit in in the football system. This kind of football tells the boys where they really are and how they have got to develop through the non-league system to get anywhere near Chesterfield’s first-team. So for that it was good and our boys are realistic as well.”

On the cup defeat, Belper’s experience and physicality proved the difference in the end and Cluxton said it will be a ‘learning curve.’

"It was a tough game for us, I thought Belper United played very well,” Cluxton explained.

"Physically they were probably a bit much for us, we had a young side out there tonight. A lot of our lads playing tonight were 16-years-old, they were not going to win the 50-50s, but we were always battling.

"We did not really create too much but it was a great learning curve tonight. It is kind of what we expected but we need to learn from that.”

He added: "Belper United deserved to win, we huffed and puffed but we never really looked like scoring. But they are a really good bunch and they kept going until the end. They had a good attitude and spirit towards the game.

"We had little moments in the game but we just did not get enough bodies near our two strikers and we did not retain possession enough. If we had nicked one straight after half-time it could have been game on but we switched off and it was not our night in the end.

"We have been second best tonight and I wish Belper United all the best.”