Chesterfield FC have declared that their inspiration is Newcastle United.
Having spent six seasons in the National League, they were back in League Two for the 2024/25 season and finished seventh.
Currently eighth in the fourth tier, Chesterfield FC are ambitious to go higher.
However, they are at the same time realistic about how far they can go on the pitch.
Where they are looking to Newcastle United as their inspiration, is when it comes to growing their fanbase and increasing the emotional local connection.
Their spell in non-league saw Chesterfield FC reinvigorate their fanbase and are now averaging over 8,000 at home in League Two, now their next stage is to try and get this average up to over 9,000.
The Chesterfield Chairman Ashley Kirk explaining how they hope to do this: “To me, it is about the town. It is trying to get something akin, and we are getting there, it is something akin to the Newcastle effect. If you are from Chesterfield, if you are born in Chesterfield, you support Chesterfield, you go to the game. It doesn’t matter, in Newcastle’s case, whether you are in the Premier League or League Two. We need to sell that emotion of the club and the town.”
Quoted by the Derbyshire Times, the Chesterfield boss declaring: “It’s that ‘what do we do on a Saturday?’ And the answer being ‘we are doing down to the SMH [Stadium], that is what we do as a town’.”
Always nice to see the Newcastle United fanbase referenced in such a positive way.
Chesterfield FC Chairman Ashley Kirk going on to say: “We are always going to get people grumbling but we have undoubtedly taken the club from a place where it was struggling for crowds relatively to where we are now where we are getting 7,500-8,000 home fans in, sometimes 9,000 home fans in, and we want to get it to a point where we are virtually always getting 9,000 home fans in. But they have got to be able to cope with disappointment and only by selling the fact we are all Chesterfield, we are all in it come rain or shine, and that is a long process.”