"We've got work to do" - John Pemberton gives his thoughts on pre-season friendly win against Belper Town

New signing Milan Butterfield opened the scoring after 12 minutes at the Raygar Stadium with a firm finish from just inside the area, before Jonathan Smith doubled the Spireites’ lead with an excellent strike from 20 yards.

The hosts got on the scoresheet through Derry Robson just before half-time, but Smith restored the Blues’ two-goal advantage with a stunning long-range volley after the break.

Belper pulled another one back through a trialist but Chesterfield held on to get their pre-season off to a winning start.

“I thought we did alright to say we have not been together for six months,” Pemberton said.

“I think the first half we were always in control of it.

“There was some good stuff there but we have got work to do - we know that.

“It is a work in progress at the moment. We’ve had a couple of weeks where we have been working in three groups - you can’t do a lot with five bodies but we managed to do it and then we’ve had five days as one group and I think it is just nice to get the game under our belts.

“It has been a really difficult pre-season because we have started behind a lot of teams in our league because of the takeover.

"A lot of the players have been on furlough so we have not been able to get them in when we would have liked to.

"You can see we are a little bit rusty and we are a little bit behind where I would like us to be with regards of the training we have done.”

Pemberton said Butterfield, who have an encouraging first performance, “will get better” as he gets more used to his teammates

And on Smith’s double strike, Pemberton said: “Certainly while I have been at this football club he has been brilliant and that is the reason why I brought him back in again. His first goal was a good strike, his second goal was just out of this world so I am very pleased for him.”

Spireites starting line-up (3-5-2): Letheren; Cropper, Yarney, Evans, Maguire, Buchanan; Butterfield, Rowley, Smith; Rawson, Denton.