Gnanduillet targets promotion

Armand Gnanduillet hopes to maintain his extended run in the Chesterfield team and help spearhead the Spireites' play-off challenge.

Gnanduillet's current run of 11 successive starts is easily the big striker's best since his arrival at the club in January 2013. Paul Cook's men have won five and drawn three of those 11 matches - during which time they have reached the FA Cup fourth round for only the second time in the last 60 years. After defeat to neighbours Derby in the cup at the weekend, Chesterfield resume league action at home to bottom-of-the-table Crawley on Tuesday night knowing victory would take them up to fifth place in the table. Gnanduillet told Press Association Sport: "I'm enjoying my football and things are going well for me and for Chesterfield. I hope it all continues. "I'm happy to play and I'm feeling good. I want to keep going like that to help my team-mates and make the fans happy. Hopefully I can continue to play my part and we can all go for promotion again, like last season. "It's good to play because I was a substitute a lot before, although I know I still can improve." Earlier in the season Gnanduillet spent a month on loan with Tranmere and the 22-year-old believes his spell with the League Two strugglers helped to kick-start his campaign. "Oh yes going there helped, definitely. It restored my confidence a little bit and 90 minutes on the pitch was so great for me," he said. "It was a good experience. I scored two goals in my second game for Tranmere away at Wimbledon. That was good for me as they were my first goals of the season and they got Tranmere a draw which moved them off the bottom of the table, so everyone was happy." Gnanduillet divides opinion amongst Chesterfield supporters but, helped by a sustained run in the team, he is becoming more consistent. He impressed once more against Derby and after playing in front of 28,392 people at the iPro Stadium, the French-born Ivorian wants to sample such occasions more often. "You play football to play in big games, big stadiums," he said. "At Chesterfield we have played at Wembley and had big days against Burton and Fleetwood and played local derby games this season, but Derby are a big Championship team and they are the kind of games we want to be playing in more often. "Hopefully, if we continue to work hard, and with the power of God, we can achieve good things as a team and play in front of big crowds like Saturday most weeks of the season." It is all certainly in stark contrast to Gnanduillet's career prior to his move to Chesterfield. During his time in France he admits to getting involved with the wrong crowd, which led to his release by Le Havre. He went to Paris where he worked in regular jobs for a time and turned out for provincial side AS Poissy, whose attendances rarely reach 200 people. It was playing for the amateur club from the French capital that Gnanduillet earned his trial with the Spireites and got a dream move to England. "I admit in France I was not professional, but I have changed a lot," he said. "I am different as a footballer, different as a person. "Hopefully if I continue to work hard good things will keep happening. "England is the best place in the world to play football so it was always an ambition of mine to play here, of course. And to do that I had to be more professional."