Hats off to The Spireites. Here’s to a promotion-winning season - and meaningful grappling with Derbyshire's asbestos problem

Hats off to Chesterfield FC. By all accounts the club's away fixture at Rochdale last Saturday was a thriller. It ended in a 2-2 draw, with Marc Richards and Gary Roberts on the scoresheet for The Spireites. Good work especially by Roberts, who also set up the opening goal by Richards.

Spencers is proud to sponsor Chesterfield FC's community stand. Football is important to communities up and down the country: it's part of the fabric of our daily lives, giving a focus and sense of identity to thousands of fans. Wouldn't it be fantastic if The Spireites, under the guidance of manager Paul Cook, can maintain their excellent form at the beginning of the season and secure promotion to League One? So far, so good, with the team unbeaten in three games and sitting nicely in third place in the League Two table.

A long, hard season looms, but the sense in the town is that the talent is there, so too the commitment and dedication needed to mount a promotion push. And Derbyshire's largest town certainly has the stadium for an upper tier football club. The Proact Stadium, with a capacity of 10,504 (roughly the same as newly promoted Yeovil Town, currently adjusting to life in the Championship), is as good as they come. It's easily capable of hosting Championship games - which is where the club aims to be.

Chesterfield could do with a success story. Derbyshire could, too. There is so much to commend about the county's market town and Derbyshire itself, but the area is not without its problems. In particular, heavy industrialism has left a dangerous legacy. I am thinking of the so-called 'hidden killer' - asbestos.

Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team

The problem of asbestos in many public buildings, homes and schools has been revealed by the excellent campaigning work of the Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team. In particular, in July 2011 it displayed a life size model of a house - showing where asbestos could be found in an average house - in New Square in Chesterfield. Colleagues of mine well remember the house (created as part of Mesothelioma Action Day) and the way in which it captivated the interest of passers-by. The charity continues to do its best to publicise the dangers posed by asbestos, not least in our schools.

Management of asbestos in schools is, indeed, a serious worry. Many experts regard its management as inadequate. There is concern that governors have little awareness, understanding or training in managing asbestos. Local authorities are supposed to have individual plans per school and yet many have one for all schools. There is the question of who is responsible in schools outside local authority control, many of which are unaware of the liability they are taking on in regard to asbestos. There is an overall lack of transparency and availability of data. Surely every parent has the right to know of the existence of asbestos in their child's school, and how the known risks it poses are managed? This seems self-evident, and yet the government continues to drag its feet on the problem of asbestos, lagging a long way behind the excellent model for its treatment in Australia.

Some of Chesterfield's children of today may one day don the blue shirts of The Spireites. Here's hoping that when they do, the club is plying its trade in the Championship. And that by then, the government has at last got its house in order when it comes to asbestos.

The Endless Winter

When, oh when, is this winter going to end? Spring is supposed to be here but if there are any green shoots to be seen they're obscured by snow in many parts of Britain. The bad weather is quite extraordinary, and scuppered something that two of my colleagues had been looking forward to on the weekend - their taking to the pitch at Chesterfield football club.

As I've previously written, Spencers is delighted to have agreed a sponsorship deal for Chesterfield FC. Last Saturday, my colleagues Rob Landman and Lee Foster were due to meet the club's chief executive, Chris Turner, on the pitch at the Proact Stadium. Rob and Lee are football fans, and walking on to the pitch at half time during Chesterfield's game against Plymouth Argyle, where they would then confirm Spencers as sponsors of the community stand in an announcement to the club's supporters, was something they were both excited about.

It wasn't to be. As Rob tells me: "The game was a victim of the weather. Heavy snow meant that it was cancelled on Saturday morning, a few hours before kick off. We felt really sorry for everyone, but especially Plymouth's players and fans. They'd come an awfully long way, and probably had no way of getting home, so bad was the weather."

Rob and Lee are now looking forward to Chesterfield's derby game against Bradford City on 13 April as their next date to take to the pitch. Here's hoping that winter has, by then, at last given way to spring.

What price Chesterfield FC one day playing in the Premier League?

The odds are probably long. Chesterfield football club may have been in existence, in one form or another, since 1866, but in that time the Derbyshire team have not once played in the top flight. And yet, look at Swansea City. Under Michael Laudrup, Swansea play some of the best football in Britain, and are set for the Europa League next season after their League Cup success. Just ten years ago Swansea narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference. Who's to say that Chesterfield won't follow in Swansea's footsteps?

Giving something back

Time will tell, but in the short term I'm delighted to announce that Spencers Solicitors is now one of Chesterfield’s sponsors. Hats off to my colleagues, Rob Landman and Lee Foster, who have worked tirelessly to bring about what I think is a great step for the firm.

Chesterfield is the site of our principal office, and it's where we've been, in one guise or another, for the past 35 years. Getting involved with the town's football club gives us a chance to get to know the local people all the better, and to put something back, not least because of the sterling community work undertaken by the club. To that end, we've sponsored the Community Stand - the hub of Chesterfield's community work.

We've agreed sponsorship for a three year term. On 23 March, before Chesterfield's home game against Plymouth Argyle, Rob and Lee will take to the pitch at half time to meet the club's chief executive Chris Turner, who will announce the deal.

Hope springs eternal

As football fans, we're all very excited about linking up with a professional club. Regular readers of my blog will know that I'm a Chelsea fan, but as much as I looked out for The Blues' result against Manchester United last weekend I also kept an eye out for how The Spireites fared. They did well, with a solid 2-0 home win over Bristol Rovers. Currently occupying a mid-table position, with 50 points, a good run of form may yet see manager Paul Cook's team reach the play-offs. Indeed, as he put it: "It's mathematically possible to go up with nine games to go, why can't I believe? I believe every day."

Chesterfield's most notable recent successes came in the 1990s. Back then, they won the Division Three play-off final at Wembley in 1995; two years later, they reached the FA Cup semi-finals. In doing so they became the first club outside the top two divisions to reach this stage of the competition since Plymouth Argyle's famous 1984 cup run, beating Premier League Nottingham Forest along the way before eventually losing a semi-final replay to Middlesbrough.  This was a case so near, and yet so far: a thrilling first semi-final ended 3-3, before The Spireites lost the replay 3-0.

More recently, Chesterfield won the 2010-11 Football League Two title, to add to two previous triumphs in the old Fourth Division. The club was also the Johnstone's Paint Trophy winner in 2011-12.

In finalising the sponsorship deal I also visited the club. Its ground, the Proact Stadium, is impressive, as are the facilities overall. The Proact Stadium has a capacity of 10,400, and the club kindly offered Spencers the use of it for a game once the real business of the football season is over. I'm not sure who we'll play, but I'm sure we'll take up this excellent offer. Meantime, wouldn't it be wonderful to see the stadium full to the rafters, with fans enjoying promotion success?

This may not come this year, but hope springs eternal among football supporters and I will join all those who pray that Chesterfield win the majority of their nine remaining games and secure a play-off place. But if not, there is always next season - and the next, and the next, and the next again, until one day, who knows, top flight football becomes a reality. And if you don't believe me, just ask the fans of Swansea City. In football, dreams can still come true.