National League club are in danger of falling into the sixth tier, with fans losing patience and the owner unable to find buyer

Chesterfield’s stadium is clean and handsome with a capacity of 10,504 and in recent memory delirious crowds were roaring the Spireites into the League One play-offs; but no amount of solid architecture can distract from the gloom within.

In mid-December Chesterfield hosted Notts County in the FA Trophy at the Proact Stadium but only 595 home fans turned up. The attendance of 931 marked the club’s lowest since 1936. Chesterfield’s 1-0 defeat damned them to five straight home losses, a sequence the club has recorded only once before. Three years after competing in League One, Chesterfield are 22nd in the National League and in danger of a third relegation in four years.

‘It is an absolute travesty’: Chesterfield's fall from Football League | David Conn Read more

“I have to say this to [the fans]: they’ve never had it so good over the last six years, have they?” Dave Allen, the owner, told the BBC last year. He first invested in the club in 2009 and took over as chairman in 2012.

It was in 2012 that Chesterfield hired Paul Cook, who guided them to the League Two title in 2014 and the League One play-offs in 2015. The following season Cook departed for Portsmouth and players such as Eoin Doyle and Sam Clucas were quickly sold. The managerial hires have failed to alter the club’s downward trajectory.

The latest is John Sheridan, who is in his second spell. Chesterfield started the season by failing to win any of their first 10 matches and have lost six of their past nine. On Boxing Day a 2-0 lead over Solihull evaporated, the visitors equalising in the fifth minute of stoppage time; they travel to Halifax on Saturday.

After a difficult 2-1 defeat by Bromley in September Sheridan publicly questioned his decision to return. “I could’ve waited around, I didn’t have to come back to Chesterfield,” he told the BBC. “I could have probably got a job and got higher. People warned me about coming down to this level.”

The financial problems were apparent, even during the better days. When Chesterfield won League Two in 2013-14 they were operating on losses of £1.06m and they recorded profits of £85,000 and £40,000 in 2015 and 2016 respectively, after selling several players.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Sheridan, in his second spell as Chesterfield’s manager, said: ‘People warned me about coming down to this level.’ Photograph: Lewis Storey/Getty Images

As of 30 June the club owed £9.2m to Allen, even after he wrote off £2m in loans. He has put the club up for sale several times since his attempts to lift them to the Championship failed. “The one thing I have done, I’ve supported the club because I’ve kept putting money in every month to pay the wages, which nobody in Chesterfield’s willing to do,” he has said.

Numerous incidents have eroded trust in the management of the club. Chesterfield admitted to fielding a reserve player, Liam Graham, under false names, Jake Hudson and Tom Jarrald, between November 2015 and January 2016. Then there was “rafflegate”, when the club advertised a fundraiser in 2016 with the prize of accompanying the team during preseason. Only four tickets were sold and Chesterfield announced the prize had been won by Surrey-based James Higgins, who was too sick to attend. James Higgins did not exist.

In 2018 the director Ashley Carson sent a message to a former club mascot: “Be very careful Paul, step one foot out of the truth and I will go for you,” it read. In a statement Carson described it as a “friendly warning” after inaccurate comments had been made. And in July 2018 the club was fined £12,500 by the FA for allowing an affiliated third party company, Chesterfield Football Club Football Development School, to pay the wages of two players, Jake Orrell and Myles Wright.

To add to the problems, in September the then captain Anthony Gerrard responded to a supporter’s taunt on Twitter by telling them he had been “rifling” their mother. He was later stripped of the captaincy.

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The attendance figures reflect apathy among supporters, many of whom are desperate for a change in ownership. “We have very good training facilities and one of the nicest grounds in the league so there is a potential there to become a high League One team, even maybe Championship team, which was the dream,” one of them, Ben Ramsdale, said. “So it’s surprising nobody has come in or is interested in taking over the club.”

Falling into the National League seemed unthinkable not so long ago. Now it is not certain Chesterfield have even hit rock bottom.