After helping Chesterfield end their six-year exile from the Football League, Spireites coach Kieron Dyer immediately thought of the one person who couldn't be there – his donor.
The former Ipswich Town, Newcastle United and England star had spent the first few months of the season watching National League games and advising manager Paul Cook from a Cambridge hospital bed before and after a lifesaving liver transplant.
“Paul had been fantastic in allowing me to still contribute from miles away in hospital,” Dyer explained. “So to end up winning promotion after beating Boreham Wood was emotional in many respects.
“My first thoughts were about my donor, that someone had died, to help ensure that I lived. I have spoken to his family who have reached out to me. What we have achieved was for him as well.”
In terms of what he has personally achieved in a successful career which included playing 33 times for England, Chesterfield’s season, finishing on top of the National League tops the lot.
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“Yes, I’ve been to World Cups, but this has probably given me the most pleasure,” he admitted. “As a coach the players are like your family, one you take responsibility for.
“They have had to put up with a lot of nonsense. We supposedly have the biggest budget in the league which isn’t true. It’s now an easy league to get out of because Wrexham aren’t in it? That is definitely not right. It’s been hard and the work is far from over. It’s all about preparing for next season now.”
Kieron Dyer needed a liver transplant (Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)Dyer formed a working relationship with Cook when the man who is in his second spell in charge at Chesterfield, leading them to the League Two title in 2014, had taken the managerial reins at Ipswich. Dyer, who was coaching the club’s Under 23s, was invited to help with the first team.
It’s why when the invitation came to hitch up again in Derbyshire Dyer couldn’t say no. “At Ipswich I really liked Paul, I loved his energy. He seemed to warm to me straight away.”
That closeness was illustrated with Cook ensuring that Dyer’s chronic liver disease necessitating a critical operation wasn’t going to sidetrack his coach’s involvement in Chesterfield’s promotion push.
Things came to a head in pre-season when Dyer suffered swelling in different parts of his body and searing stomach pain in the middle of the night ended up with him in hospital in the knowledge that only a liver transplant will enable him to leave.
Dyer added: “It’s with me every day that someone had to die to allow me to live. At times I end up shedding a few tears. It happened moments after we clinched promotion. I was proud to be part of it and, hopefully, my donor’s family were too.”
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