Chesterfield coach expects League Two to be 'wake-up call'

Chesterfield will be playing in the fourth-tier for the first time in six years next season after clinching the National League title on Saturday.

Carlisle United and Bristol Rovers are examples of clubs who have both won back-to-back promotions from non-league to League One and Wrexham could do the same if they go up this year.

But Webb told the DT: “I think it is going to be a bigger wake-up call than people think. I think a lot of people think that you bounce up and bounce up again. That is the hope, that is the aim, that you go up again, but life doesn’t work like that. You come across bigger and better teams. To get to League One would be the dream, that is where the team was when the manager was here last time, and I know he wants to get them back there again at some point.”

Webb won promotions as a player but he has openly said that he prefers coaching to playing. And to win a title at a club where he feels at home makes it his ‘best’ achievement.

He explained: “I have won promotion to the Championship as a player with Brighton, won the National League title with Leyton Orient and got to the Conference South with Wimbledon, but this is miles ahead of them. Orient was great, by the way, that was done on the last day so there was more tension.

“This is a great feeling more so because of the Wembley result last year. This is somewhere I have got a real affection for.

“I prefer the coaching and the managing side to playing. Most people miss the buzz of playing but I don’t. I would miss the buzz and the tension of sitting on the bench as a coach - I quite like it.”

It was fitting that Chesterfield’s first goal in their title-clinching 3-0 win against Boreham Wood on Saturday came from a corner, something they have had a lot of success from this season, with Webb the man leading the routines on the training ground. It was their 22nd goal scored from a corner and they have struck more than 30 times from set-pieces in general.

Webb added: “We all have our roles. I think that is 34 goals we have scored from set-pieces including free-kicks. Fair play to the players for executing what we do. With me you have got Gary (Roberts) leading a lot of the coaching with Kieron (Dyer) and Paddy (Byrne), Bucky (Dave O’Hare) with the goalies, and then the manager oversees us all so everyone has played their part.”