John Pemberton is insisting that nothing changes at Chesterfield now that he has the manager’s job until the end of the season – operation survival goes on.
The former Kidderminster Harriers boss returned to the Spireites at the start of the year, taking ten points from a possible 15 during his time in charge.
Crucial wins over Sutton, Eastleigh and Wrexham, plus a draw with AFC Fylde, convinced the Chesterfield board he was the man to see out the next two months.
“I wasn’t too worried about it [getting the job] either way to be honest but obviously looking forward to it now it’s done,” Pemberton, the former Chesterfield academy boss told The NLP before beating relegation rivals Ebbsfleet 4-0 on Saturday.
“I haven’t gone in every morning thinking I’m doing my work but I might be gone next week. The whole point was to leave it in a better position, whenever that was, than when I went in.
“Whether I’m manager for the next month, three months or three years, it’s all about improvement and keep improving. Hopefully it’s going to be the right decision and only time will tell that.
“The situation didn’t worry me. I did the job when Martin Allen left so I knew the majority of the players, I knew the club, I knew what to expect.
“It’s a situation I’ve done before at Nottingham Forest and Bristol City twice, it’s just about getting on with it. The challenge of where we are and staying in the division doesn’t frighten me at all.”
Fitness first
Pemberton has implemented changes such as GPS monitoring in training to track fitness levels, altered the formation and played players in their usual positions.
When he arrived five weeks ago the club was five points adrift of safety – now they’re on the cusp of survival.
“I like to have unit meetings and one-to-ones,” he added. “Morale was really low so initially it was trying to get that better. That helps when you win games.
“Every game is important, we could have been eight points adrift if we lost the first game. Managing to win that gave us a really nice platform to go from.
“A lot of players felt they had been playing out of position, the easiest thing was to put round pegs in round holes again and that is common sense really.
“I don’t get carried away with it, one result can change it and the feel-good factor is out the door and you’ve got the pressure of winning the next game. We’ve got to just get on with it and carry on doing what we’re doing.”
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