And they will also be hoping Spireites' goal ace Jack Lester remains sidelined as the League's bottom club once again go in search of their first away win of the season, four points adrift of safety.

Boulding, second in the League Two scoring charts, has been having treatment on a knee injury this week but is expected to be fit.

Mullins suffered a jarred and gashed ankle in Saturday's defeat at Grimsby but returned to training this morning and Dearden is hopeful Mullins will play, even if not fully fit.

But Lee Bell is out until the New Year and Dan Martin remains doubtful after two weeks off with his hamstring strain.

"This is a big time for us with five games in 14 days coming up," said manager Billy Dearden.

"We can't afford to keep taking chances with players if they are not quite ready with such a small squad. They have got to be right.

"We know our squad is not big enough and I want to bring players in during January.

"Until then we have to try to stay in touch. We know that, even if we won all our games this month, we couldn't get away from it straight away.

"We have just got to get with the pack again and then bring in some new faces.

"I have got to look at the lads and ask are they good enough? They have had their chances and we are bottom.

"We need more strength in depth and a bit more experience in the team to give a bit more guidance out there.

"I don't know what money I have available. Maybe it will be something out of a fruit machine! But I want to bring in at least three new players. Maybe a couple will have to go out as well.

"We certainly need another player up front. We are not conceding many goals which is a bonus, but we need to score more and someone else apart from Mickey Boulding has to start scoring them."

Despite being bottom, Dearden was far from despondent.

"I am more disappointed than anyone to be where we are," he said. "But there is a long way to go and we are only halfway through the season. There are a lot of clubs down there in the same situation."

He added: "We need to start winning away. We hate it not having an away win. You just get cheesed off with it.

"We have got to put the record straight as soon as possible and you sometimes find you win one and then you quickly win two or three.

"I know the best Christmas present our supporters could have is a win at Chesterfield and we will be doing our best to give them that.

"Chesterfield have their injury problems too and Jack Lester may or may not be back. Whatever team they put out we have got to match them.

"It will be a very difficult game. But they have only won two and drawn five at home – it is their away form that's been terrific. Maybe we can go there, get them on the wrong foot and get a result.

"We should have got a point from Grimsby. It looked a 0-0 game all day – then we conceded a goal. Maybe we will have to change our system.

"We play three of the top six sides over Christmas which is a great challenge for us. The players need to pull out the stops and get results."

League Two's second top scorer Jack Lester, with 13 goals, has been out for almost a month with an ankle injury and the Spireites have only taken one point from the last three games.

He is touch and go for Saturday though definitely out is Derek Niven who misses his first game of the season through suspension.

The game is all-ticket and Stags fans must buy one by 5pm Friday if they are going.