BLUES boss Neil Young is hoping to strengthen his defensive options this week as his team eye automatic promotion.
After watching his side score a 2-1 weekend home victory against Mickleover Sports,Young revealed that he was aiming to secure the services of an experienced defender.
“I’m trying to bring a defender in and I feel we’re fairly close,” said the Blues’ boss. “I think the player will be a big signing for us because he is experienced and has plenty of quality.
“If I can complete the signing by tomorrow or Wednesday then I feel it will be a big plus for us as we go into the final three or four months of the season.
“The player will sign on the understanding that he will be allowed to leave Chester if a Football League club come in for him.
“But I think the possibility at this stage of the season of a Football League club signing the player after he has joined us would be unusual.
“I’m prepared to take a gamble on him, but I have one or two other options if the deal doesn’t happen.
“One player I was looking at will hopefully become a Chester signing in the middle part of next week, but there are no guarantees in football and things can change very quickly.”
Young is looking to bolster his rearguard after admitting that his central defensive partnership of captain George Horan and Michael Taylor are both carrying knocks.
“We have got some lads carrying knocks,” added Young. “Mainly our two centre halves, and Christian Smith didn’t play on Saturday because we think he’s got a broken rib.
“I’m not making any excuses, but some of our play was so sloppy against Mickleover and I was so disappointed.
“Saturday was the most frustrated I have been on the touchline for a long time because of the simple things we couldn’t do, even up until the 90th minute when we won the ball and we were still trying to score.
“I wanted us to keep the ball and see the game out, but we gave the ball away and Mickleover were then in our half.
“We conceded a lot of late goals last season and on Saturday we were doing exactly the same thing, but we managed to hold on and other results have gone our way.”
Young saw Alex Brown and Matty McNeil earn Chester a 2-0 lead after just 19 minutes before Mickleover pulled a goal back four minutes before half-time, and he said: “It wasn’t a very good spectacle. I thought we were sloppy from the first minute through to the 94th although we always looked the better side.
“We had plenty of chances, but in the end it’s fair to say that we huffed and puffed and it wasn’t a great performance. But it was lucky for us we were able to get over the line.
“We were at home and we tried to employ two up front with two wide players. People were crying out for it, but I think everyone could see that it didn’t work for us.
“There is something there that just didn’t happen. People get at us too easily and we are all over the place.
“We tried to be open and we tried to get at Mickleover who to be fair to them dug in and kept going.
“Once we got the second goal I thought we would kick on and score more, but we then missed a couple of chances and then gave a sloppy goal away.
“We were 2-0 up after 20 minutes, but it could have been 5-0 after all the chances we created.
“I know people want to see expansive football, no one more so than me, but we were far too open for a game like Saturday’s.
“If we go to Chorley and play the same way I think we’ll get a good hiding, so we’ve now got a lot of work to do in the week.
“Our final ball was awful and our actual thinking throughout was poor.
“We did get better as the second half went on. Alex Brown came to life and did really well in the second half.”
Wanting to learn from last season’s nail biting end to the season when Chester won the title on goal difference, Young added: “Our performance against Mickleover was like a mirror image of last season and I’m not wanting that to happen again. So now we’ve got a lot of work to do and we’ll reassess where we are because I want to learn my lesson from last season.
“I don't want to see any more of those performances.
“I don't think there was an arrogance about the way we played because we gave lads opportunities and those lads have played well. But the players around them have not performed.
“It was good to give Stefan (Cox) his debut on Saturday as a substitute and I thought he was lively. He had only trained with us once since he joined the club on loan from Fleetwood but he looked a real threat.”