John Rooney agrees this weekend provides Chester FC with a chance for redemption after the events of August 9.

Pre-season optimism was shattered inside 90 minutes as a ruthless Barnet team dished out a humiliating 5-0 beating.

Rooney missed a penalty and Danny Harrison was sent off on a wretched afternoon for the Blues, who could not cope with the Lee Cook-inspired Bees.

In the four months since, Chester have worked hard to repair the damage and restore the supporters’ belief.

Barnet have continued to impress and are top of the Vanarama Conference, seven points clear of the chasing pack.

On Saturday, Rooney and his team-mates go to North London for the return fixture (3pm) and the midfielder admits there are more than a few wrongs to right.

Rooney said: “When you get beat by someone like that, you want to go out and prove something.

“We’re going to be more up for this game because of what happened in the first one.

“We had an early sending off which didn’t help but it’s never nice losing like that, especially the first game of the season in front of your own fans.

“We want to go there and prove a point.”

Chester bowed out of the FA Cup in midweek with a 3-0 defeat to Rooney’s former club Barnsley in a second-round replay, having held the League One side to a hard-fought goalless draw in the initial game at Oakwell.

Tykes boss Danny Wilson’s decision to switch to four in midfield paid off as Rooney and Kingsley James struggled to get into the contest and were unable to trouble centre-halves Peter Ramage and Martin Cranie.

Dale Jennings scored twice for the South Yorkshire club and Rooney thinks the class of the ex-Tranmere Rovers winger told.

“You don’t get bought by Bayern Munich if you’re not a good player and that was the difference as he scored two great goals,” said Rooney, who turned 24 on Wednesday.

“Barnsley came here and organised well and they were the better team on the night.

“They set themselves up a bit differently on Tuesday to try and stop us from getting on the ball, because they know that’s the way we like to play, and to be fair, they were good at it.

“Martin Cranie was a different class and in the first game I thought he was good and both centre-halves were solid, so it was hard.

“It’s always good to play in the FA Cup and the club’s had a good run in it this year, but on Tuesday night I thought Barnsley were the better team.

“Up there I thought we were probably the better team, but we just didn’t get that goal that would have killed the game for us.”

Despite the FA Cup exit, the Blues still have plenty to play for with the trip to The Hive being the first of five matches in 11 days, which includes the FA Trophy first-round replay at home to AFC Telford United on Monday (7.45pm)