Chesterfield supporters have voted with their feet in support of Paul Cook call | OneFootball

With attendances at record-high levels, Chesterfield have extended manager Paul Cook's contract, further cementing his legend status among fans.

Following a positive start to life back in League Two, Chesterfield have announced the contract extensions of Paul Cook and his coaching staff, and if attendances are anything to go by, it’ll be a popular call among Town fans.

Only Notts County and Bradford average higher attendances than Chesterfield’s 8,940, with the Spireites regularly travelling in healthy numbers away from home, with over 350 making the long trip to Newport on Friday night.

In their most recent Saturday home match against Notts County, Chesterfield’s attendance reached over 10,000 for the first time in the EFL since the Spireites beat Gillingham 3-1 to lift the League Two title back in 2011.

Whether it be home or away, Chesterfield are backed by thousands of supporters, under a manager who has helped reunite the fanbase after years of discontent between the supporters and former owner Dave Allen, who left the club in 2020.

Attendances have soared following Cook’s return to the club.

After lifting the League Two title in 2014 and guiding the Spireites to the League One play-offs a year later, Cook made a remarkable return to Derbyshire in February 2022 with the aim of guiding Chesterfield back to the Football League.

In Cook’s second stint at Town, the 57-year-old led the Spireites to the National League title last season and has embarked on a number of memorable FA Cup runs, where they went toe-to-toe with the likes of West Brom, Watford and Portsmouth, with Town giving good accounts of themselves in all three games.

In that time, Cook has helped home attendances reach record high levels, thanks not only to his on-field success and entertaining football, but to his openness and honesty while in the dug-out.

The former Ipswich man has a reputation of being a ‘man of the people’ in Derbyshire, which was evident when he was seen celebrating with supporters when his side lifted the National League earlier this year.

His passion and love for the club and town didn’t go unnoticed and was put on show when he went from now Premier League Ipswich to a Chesterfield side surrounded in uncertainty following James Rowe’s departure.

A manager of Cook’s pedigree wouldn’t have looked out of place at a lower Championship or League One club, but his decision to rejoin Chesterfield furthered his club legend status.

While the former Wigan man has played a huge role in Chesterfield’s rising attendances with his National League title win last season, the Chesterfield FC Community Trust alongside local businessmen Phil and Ashley Kirk have also had huge parts to play in Town 'getting their club back'.

The Spireites slumped to a 19th place finish in the National League in their final season under the ownership of Dave Allen in 2019/20, whose running of the club led to fan protests. The Blues had literally hit rock bottom.

But in August 2020, the club’s fortunes would change when the Chesterfield FC Community Trust purchased a majority stake in the club and, after years of fan frustration at the lack of financial backing under the previous ownership, the Trust injected healthy amounts of cash to help the Spireites reach the next level.

In recent years, local businessmen, the Kirk brothers, have provided further funding, with over £2million invested in the summer, with the duo now majority owners of the Derbyshire outfit.

The Kirk brothers and Cook maintain a healthy relationship, which has allowed for Cook to continue his healthy spending.

Good managers and owners are hard to come by in modern football. Chesterfield are lucky enough to say they’ve got both.

Cook has created a clear identity on and off the pitch at Chesterfield.

Throughout his career, Cook has regularly used a 4-2-3-1 system, with a high emphasis on control and creating chances, but when he arrived at Chesterfield, he had to re-model a squad more suited to counter-attacking football in a back-five.

While Cook’s first few months were tricky, a successful summer window which included the arrivals of Armando Dobra, Ollie Banks and Darren Oldaker helped the Spireites cement themselves as one of the best teams in the National League.

The Spireites were a penalty shootout away from promotion in his first full season in charge, but high-profile signings such as Tom Naylor and Will Grigg helped the Blues storm to the National League title last season, scoring 106 goals in the process.

Cook has once again used his reputation to attract high-profile players to the club this summer and has continued to take Town to the next level, now sitting just outside the play-off places following a run of six games without defeat.

Town’s defence was a weakness at times last campaign, conceding 65 goals in 46 games, and Cook has successfully rebuilt the back four, with the signings of Chey Dunkley, Lewis Gordon, Devan Tanton and Vontae Daley-Cambell.

Many players have credited Cook as one of the leading factors in joining the Spireites, including Dunkley, who said, “I know I’m going to be looked after,” when he signed this summer, and Gordon, who said, “the manager has spoken to me and given me confidence.”

Off the pitch, Cook has overseen the building of a new state-of-the-art training facility, The Erwin Training Ground, and the fanbase has been truly united behind a manager for the first time since Cook’s first spell in charge.

In Cook, the Spireites have found themselves a manager universally loved by the fans, as attendances show, the players and the board, so as long as the Liverpudlian remains at the helm, Chesterfield FC will remain in very safe hands.