Steve Burr hailed the 'terrific job' being done by his successor in the Chester FC hotseat after returning to the club.
Burr was part of the BT Sport team for Friday night's 3-2 defeat to title-challenging Tranmere Rovers at the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium.
And after the live televised derby the 57-year-old was asked for his thoughts on what he had seen - and on the season Chester are having.
The Blues are 11th in the Vanarama National League standings and 11 points above the relegation places in what is Jon McCarthy's first full campaign in charge.
McCarthy led Chester to safety in the final four games of last season after Burr, who he had been assistant to, was sacked following a prolonged poor run of form.
The next target for the Blues is to reach the magical 50-point mark that, more often that not, secures survival.
And once that is achieved McCarthy's men can set their sights on beating the best points total gained by the club in the non-league top flight since its reformation.
That 63-point haul was attained under Burr during the 2014-15 campaign.
And the current Stalybridge Celtic boss, who was joined at Friday's match by ex-Chester City manager Jim Harvey, said: "Chester will be disappointed to lose it late on like that to Trainmere.
"They would have been very happy with a point tonight. I think Tranmere just about edged it with their second-half performance. To be fair to Chester they kept going going but they were penned back for a lot of the second half.
"Absolutely, Jon has done terrific since he's taken over. There's a great atmosphere here, the crowd expects, and the expectations sometimes are maybe quite high with what Chester have to use as a budget.
"But I think Jon's done a terrific job getting them where they are. They're progressing - and that's the main thing.
"He'll be disappointed tonight because I know what he's like. They've been on a bit of a bad run but I'm sure they will finish the season strongly.
"It will give Jon plenty of chance maybe to have a look at one or two of the younger boys in the side.
"He'll be disappointed tonight, because we're always disappointed when we lose games, but overall the season has gone really well for Chester."
