Jon McCarthy says the Blues will be waiting to deliver a knockout blow should FA Cup opponents Barnsley show a sign of weakness.
McCarthy has been in the game a long time and knows Chester need a few things to fall into place to have a puncher’s chance.
Luck will help of course, but for assistant boss McCarthy the focus is on ensuring the team perform at their peak so that if the League One side do not, the odds on a shock will be shortened.
A place in the third round, where 50 years ago next month the Blues travelled to Old Trafford and took the lead before Manchester United came back to win 2-1, awaits for the winners.
McCarthy said: “We’ll play it down a little bit but who knows?
“There’s a lot of history isn’t there leading up to a big draw against Manchester United in the next round.
“Barnsley have good players and to put it in context Rhys Oates, who’s come and made a massive difference to us, can’t get in their team.
“But if we produce our level of performance and Barnsley don’t quite get themselves in the place they should be then we’ll be ready to take advantage.
“We’ll work on that side of things this week and have a good look at what Barnsley have been doing and it’s up to them to reach the level of performance that should beat us.”
McCarthy has a special affinity with the FA Cup. In 1996, he starred for Port Vale in a fourth round win over Everton and 10 years later he was part of the Northwich Victoria team that Steve Burr took to the third round before losing to Sunderland.
“I still get excited and I remember waking up and my dad taking me for a load of sweets then watching the FA Cup on television all day on a Saturday,” said McCarthy, who gave up his job at Mid Cheshire College to take up a full-time position with the Blues, combining his coaching role with heading up the Chester FC Community Trust.
“Getting back involved with football, being with the club and having these couple of games I’ve really felt the excitement and I can’t wait.
“It is exciting and we went down to Barnsley and had a look and it’s a bigger stand and it was a Premier League ground not that long ago.
“It has that feel and that’s the bit we will get our players ready for so we’re not fazed by that.
“We know the city is behind us and there’s lots of people going to come down and it’s going to be great to go out at that end and have all those fans there.”
