Jon McCarthy feels an influx of fresh blood will help bring out the best of the Chester FC squad - but doesn’t think the situation is as grim as has been painted.

Chester boss Steve Burr has lined up three new signings in an attempt to galvanise his side following a run that has left him and fans feeling exasperated.

He hopes to tie up a loan deal for a striker from a League One club and has offered non-contract terms to a left-back with Championship experience and a midfielder who played in League One last season.

Assistant manager McCarthy has been frustrated at the lack of consistency too and believes it’s the right time to bolster the squad, but the 45-year-old believes some perspective is needed too.

Eighteen games into the season, the Blues are sitting in 14th place - the same position as 12 months ago but with an extra two points on the board this term.

On that basis and given the budget Steve Burr has to work with, McCarthy suggests the campaign should not be viewed as so much of a letdown.

He said: "We need some extra competition for places and the squad needs freshening up. I don’t want to be critical because it’s the same kind of thing we did last season but we’re doing it a little bit earlier.

"We’re always looking to improve the squad and the gaffer is making a lot of calls and watching a lot of games. It’s about us putting some extra pressure on the players we have too and if improving the squad makes the players here respond and perform better then great.

"We understand the disappointment of going out of the FA Cup. We’re disappointed too and the players got that message.

"I know we’ve got a better squad than last year and the work we’re doing on the training ground is better, and we’ve made progress because we’re two points better off.

"We want to be higher and our target is to get into that top 10, but if we win on Saturday then we’re only seven points behind Forest Green and they’re the leaders.

"I do think people are maybe looking back on last year a bit more romantically because the start we made was horrendous.

"We don’t feel like we are that far away from where we want to be and we’ve had some injuries, which we knew we would get.

"We’re not looking for excuses but this is where the club is at the moment in terms of its budget. We’ve probably got a bottom six or seven budget and we’re a little bit above that.

"If you look at league tables from the Premier League down, it’s normally quite close to the budgets with one or two exceptions, and we want to be one of those exceptions."