CHESTERFIELD'S new assistant manager Alan Knill spoke exclusively to Spireites World. Read the highlights of the video interview right here

Well Alan Knill welcome to SPIREITES WORLD and your first interview. How did your new job come about?

I obviously got the sack at Rotherham. I have known Lee along time since our time at Halifax. I was playing and Lee and the Chief were coming through the ranks and everyone got on, and we have kept in touch on and off ever since. When I become assistant and then manager at Rotherham we have kept in touch more. So when Lee rang me and asked me to join him at Chesterfield I was very flattered that he asked me and I jumped at it really.

Were you on the rebound with the first job offer that happened to come up since Rotherham?

Not really, I was working with a couple of Premiership clubs and could have stayed on doing that. But I am a player person and like coaching. There are two types of managers one that runs the club and others that want to be on the playing field coaching, and that's what I like to do.

Lee is not the most popular appointment in some fans opinion what are they missing?

He is heavily into psychology and I believe in that but I believe I bring in some added experience to that.  I have done it all really and done all the jobs from youth team to managing a club. The most difficult can be the assistant manager's job because you have to do what the manager wants even though you might not agree with it. From the outside there seemed to be a turning against Roy so it's easy to tar Lee with the same brush. But he's got his own ideas and now is the time for the supporters to give him a chance because he's got the job.

So how do you see the new backroom team working?

When he explained what he wanted to do it was totally different to what I was used to doing at Rotherham because I was doing it all. I was doing coaching and scouting, and that drags you all over and there is not enough time to do everything in the right way. So under this system we can split the players up into defenders, midfielders and strikers and work with them on a more individual basis which should benefit the players development more.

Tell us a bit about your career in football?

I played around six hundred games starting at Southampton under Lawrie McMenemy and they had Shilton, Keegan, Channon and Ball. I wasn't ever really going to get in to that team and I decided to go to Halifax for first team football. I was lucky to start there alongside probably the hardest man in the world Billy Arye, who was my minder. I stayed there for four or five years before Swansea bought me and we got promoted under Terry Yorath. Bury then bought me before I moved on to Scunthorpe after four seasons. From Scunthorpe I went to Rotherham were I ended my playing career. Ronnie Moore kind of ended my career. I had back problems and I couldn't really get up for games, and he offered me the chance to coach the youth team and then I moved onto assistant manager and then manager there.

So what was your first take on Chesterfield?

My first impression of the team and the squad was the team was very small in stature. So we sat down and discussed that and although the squad was technically good the squad was very small. I think that to compete in any league you have to have a certain size and be athletic. Even if we had stayed up there would have been changes. We have a number of targets in mind and we have watching players all over since I came here.

There are media reports linking the Spireites with Neil McKenzie from Scunthorpe, what do you say about that?

He's a good player and a player we are interested in, though I am not sure if anything has been sorted out yet.

Any others you are looking at?

I don't think its right to name anymore names at the moment but they will be athletic. That's because in the League Two you have to fight and I won't be the prettiest sometimes. There will be lots of endeavour so you have to fight and then with technical ability you win games. So I think we will have a good chance if we bring in the right players to mix into the existing squad.

So what are your plans for the summer?

I go to Madrid on Thursday because I am doing a Pro- License and will be taking in the Athletico v Barcelona game on Saturday so its kind of a working holiday. After that I will have a bit of a rest. But we will be working hard making phone calls through out the summer. The players may have a rest but the staff will still be working much of the time.

Do you have a message for the fans?

Get behind the players and give Lee a chance and let's see what we can do, and I think they will be surprised.

So you are confident in the future?

Yes I wouldn't have come otherwise because I didn't have to come.  But I think there is a real opportunity for the club to move forward and to get the Club back to where the club should be. We all think, especially with the new ground, that should be in the Championship. It may take a little time but the plans are there to take us there.