After seeing his team’s National League opener at Solihull Moors postponed just 24 hours before kick off you would forgive Chester FC boss Jon McCarthy for being somewhat annoyed at seeing his best laid plans go awry.

But the Blues manager says that as soon as he got word of the postponement of Saturday’s clash with Solihull on Friday he was already sorting out his plans for the following day - a second scouting mission in the space of a week for AFC Fylde.

McCarthy paid a visit to Mill Farm Stadium to watch Dave Challinor’s side earn a 2-2 draw with Boreham Wood in their season opener having secured promotion from the National League North last season.

The Chester boss says he understands the frustrations and anger of supporters at what transpired at the weekend but insists that it has not hampered his plans for tonight’s visit of Fylde (7.45pm) to the Swansway Chester Stadium, a game that will see the Blues finally kick off their new campaign.

“Look, it’s rubbish for the fans who have paid good money for travel and who had been looking forward to the start of the season,” said McCarthy.

“We would have taken a real following to Solihull and I think that would have been something early doors to show just what this football club and its fans are about and how big the support is and what it means. On those two fronts what happened was a disappointment but it hasn’t affected things too much on the football side of things.

“As soon as I knew there was no game then I got on to sorting out going to watch Fylde. It was a trip that I wasn’t expecting to be making so I have taken the positives out of it.

“There is also the fact that the players have had that little bit extra time to get themselves right and everybody is fit and has trained and after the weekend and we’re ready to get going now.”

McCarthy is hoping to see a bumper crowd turn out to back the new-look Blues this evening and help spur them on to a winning start.

But after the dismal end to last season, McCarthy acknowledges that, for all the talk and the positivity around the football club during the summer, fans will want to see an improvement on the pitch.

“We’ve worked hard to get to this point to make improvements to this football club on and off the pitch and ensure we move on from where we were last season,” said McCarthy.

“With the results as they were towards the end of last season then it didn’t really matter what I said as we weren’t winning matches. But I think that people now know some of the challenges that we were facing and what was going on. It was always going to be tough but we knew we would have the chance to turn things around a bit when we got to summer, and that’s what we have done.

“We’ve prepared as best we can and while we don’t have a huge budget, what we do off the field and in terms of what we do on the training ground then I can assure you it’s right up there with the top sides.

“The lads are all excited and ready to get going.”

Ross Hannah and Alex Lynch have both recovered from knocks and are available for selection this evening.