Jon McCarthy was pleased with the workout for his players last night as his Chester FC side came back from a goal down to draw 1-1 at Evo-Stik Northern Premier League side Nantwich Town.

Elliott Durrell's deflected 18-yard effort on 31 minutes cancelled out Steve Jones' 25-yard strike to open the scoring on 17 minutes for the hosts as the Blues were put through their paces by Phil Parkinson's side at the Weaver Stadium in a game that wasn't your usual pre-season training ground fare.

And Blues boss McCarthy was pleased enough with what he saw in terms of workrate from his players as they gear up for a home clash with Championship side Burton Albion on Saturday at the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium (3pm).

"They (Nantwich) play a really exciting brand of football and poses us some of the problems that we will face when we go into the league so it was perfect for us," said McCarthy, who gave another run out to trialist striker James Akintunde following his first-half hat-trick in Saturday's 5-3 win at Marine.

"We asked for another level from us in terms of workrate. The shape was a little bit off in the first half but we were pleased with some of the passing. We got a little bit more structure in the second half.

"We have Burton coming to us (on Saturday) and it's that extra 10% you find again so we can kick on from there. But it is the next step on the journey towards Gateshead and I'm really happy with the workout."

One player who did impress for the Blues was winger Durrell, whose movement, vision and trickery was a constant thorn in the side of the experienced Dabbers backline.

And McCarthy pointed to the former Tamworth man's desire to prove himself after a disappointing spell in the National League with Wrexham in 2014/15 as one of his motivating factors.

Chester's Eliott Durrell
Chester's Eliott Durrell

McCarthy said: "He's keen. There is a hunger there, a real desire and a willingness to go and prove himself.

"Sometimes that is to the detriment of him as he does too much running but that is something we have to talk to him about and where he can pick the ball up better and save himself.

"But we have real competition in those wide areas and those attacking areas and that's great as they'll keep pushing each other on and we've got high expectations of the group."