Wrexham AFC manager Gary Mills has warned Chester FC will face a 'different team' than the one that lost 3-2 at the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium earlier in the season.
John Rooney, Tom Shaw and Kane Richards secured a 3-2 success for Steve Burr's side on home soil back in October , where the Blues were full value for their win and could have secured success by a far greater margin over their cross-border rivals.
Back then Chester had ideas of making progress on the previous season's 12th-placed finish but have been left looking over their shoulder for the season run-in after struggling with inconsistent form in recent months.
The Dragons, who looked likely to miss out on the National League play-offs only a few weeks ago, have had new life breathed into their campaign of late and are in with a strong shout of making the top five and keeping their hopes of a return to the Football League alive. And Mills has issued a warning ahead of Saturday's clash (2pm) and believes his side will present a wholly different proposition for the Blues this time around.
"We are going to be a different team on Saturday, Chester are going to see a different team on Saturday and you live and learn," said Mills, whose side extended their unbeaten streak to eight games at the weekend with a 1-0 win over Boreham Wood.
" “I am not going to hark on about what it means to people, but we are in a position where three points is vital, where we know we need to keep winning to keep giving us a chance to be in the play-offs.
"It just happens to be a local derby, and everything that comes with the local derby, so we have got to be mentally switched on for the right reasons. We are eight unbeaten and we have got to go and make that nine, best we can make it three points. So it will be a tough game, they always are local derbies, and there is always a great atmosphere, the passions running right through the football club, and it is a big, big game for us.
"I think where ever you play in a local derby they are all very similar, there’s that atmosphere, there is an edge to them, there is bragging rights to them, there is everything that comes with derbies.
"The passion runs high, but again being a manager and being a professional I have got to make sure all my efforts and all my passion and my desire and my thoughts on the game on Saturday are done in the right way. If we score in the last second to win 1-0 and we have been awful and they have hit the bar 20 times and we win the game then so be it.
"I’d love to see a good performance, in an ideal world I want a great performance and I want three points, if it is not going to be an ideal and great performance but we get three points then great as well."
Mills admits he made mistakes in the defeat against Chester last time around, mistakes he is keen to avoid on Saturday.
"“It was disappointing,” added the manager. “I think if we play worse than that in the rest of the season then we are not going to win a match, it was our worst performance for me by a long way.
“I made a couple of mistakes that day as a manager and I had to hold my hand up to that. It was a derby, but there was three points at stake and we didn’t deserve anything out of the game, although we nearly nicked a point at the end of it."
