NEIL Young hailed his Chester FC team after they returned to winning ways at Rushall Olympic to pull three points clear at the top.
The Blues boss was beaming with pride following the excellent victory over a Rushall side who have claimed the scalps of Hednesford Town and Chorley at home this season.
Young, who believes chief scout Alex Hay played a vital role in the success, said: “It was a difficult pitch and if you look at Rushall’s home record, it is very good. But I thought we were thoroughly professional about the way we went about our work.
“Thanks to Alex Hay, who goes all over the country watching games for us, we knew what they had. They’ve got a lad up front in (Ahmed) Obeng who causes a lot of problems but we made sure we got tight to him and stopped him from getting in behind us. He is a danger and that is why Football League clubs are looking at him.
“We knew they would go from back to front quite quickly and try and get us turned but we squeezed them high up the pitch and when we got the ball, we tried to look after it as best we could.
“I thought we played with a lot more pace in wide areas and also our set-pieces were much better.”
Man-of-the-match Matty McNeil opened the scoring in the 29th minute with a delightful turn and shot which led Young to joking that the lone striker’s footwork would not have looked out of place on Dancing on Ice.
Play-off chasing Rushall, for whom it was their biggest home defeat of the campaign, hit the bar before the break through Matt Lewis. Their hopes of getting back into the match were dashed, however, four minutes after the restart when Michael Powell joined McNeil on 10 goals for the term with a sharp close-range finish.
Top scorer Matty McGinn netted his ninth penalty and 12th goal of the season in the 58th minute before debutant Levi Mackin stepped off the bench to side-foot home a superb fourth in injury-time.
Winger Jerome Wright, playing back-to-back games for the first time since August, had a hand in three of the goals.
Young, who admitted he had great difficulty in picking his starting XI after a high-quality pre-match training session, said: “Jerome’s not got going yet because of injury but people have to be given opportunities and a run of games.
“There are lots of lads in our squad who on their first two, three, four performances were deemed not good enough for Chester. But now the likes of Michael Powell, Robbie Booth, Michael Taylor and Chris Simm are players the fans want to be the first names on the team sheet.”
The Blues turn their attention to the FA Trophy on Saturday and a long trip to the Blue Square Premier’s Ebbsfleet United for a big second-round tie (3pm). Liam Brownhill and Alex Brown return after being rested against Rushall. Wes Baynes and Powell are suspended.
