The Chesterfield Courier
Squad3 Jan 2028
Chinedu Ekene damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Koki Saito takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Koki Saito provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Jan 2028
Chinedu Ekene hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chesterfield can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
Franco Tossen says Chesterfield went back on their word
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Charlie Taylor signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Charlie Taylor and Chesterfield agree another 2 years.
Match1 Jan 2028
Chesterfield find a way past Bromley
Bromley made Chesterfield work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match1 Jan 2028
The run at home goes on for Chesterfield
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Chesterfield lose Thomas Barnes
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad3 Jan 2028
CJ Hamilton falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
- Player ratings One of those days for Jon Russell
- Player ratings A masterclass from Lee Bonis
- Player ratings Nobody could get near CJ Hamilton