'No-brainer' - why John Pemberton thinks Chesterfield should be allowed seven subs - and the player he won't be able to 'ignore' for much longer

Due to only being able to have five on the bench, Pemberton has been forced to gamble with his options, such as not having a defender in the squad against Stockport County on Saturday.

“I don’t know any reason why we should not have seven,” the Town boss said.

“I think if you spoke to every manager in our league, they would say it is a no-brainer to have seven subs. It is not going to cost any more money, we still take two extra bodies with us (to away matches) and we still have to pay them.

“What it does is take away some of the opportunity to put some of the youngsters and give them the first-team experience, even if they don’t get on.

“Otherwise the only other thing to do is go without a goalkeeper, but doing that you are always taking a chance because it only has to happen once and you look stupid.

“It is a bit like in an international tournament, you don’t always take the best players, you take the players who can play several positions because you are going to need it and we have got games thick and fast so I have got to look at a lot of things.”

And one player who Pemberton would like to include in his squad more is youngster Regan Hutchinson.

The academy graduate signed a new contract in the summer and is very much part of the manager’s plans.

Hutchinson, Luke Rawson and Jamie Sharman are the ‘future’ of the club, Pemberton says, and they were probably going to leave the Blues had he not given them their chance.

“Regan has been excellent in training and the problem we have had with Regan is the five substitute rule,” he added.

“If he keeps doing what he is doing then I won’t be able to ignore him much longer and then we have got three players for the future.

“Luke Rawson and Jamie Sharman have been absolutely outstanding I think.”