Jon McCarthy wants the players to grasp the chance to secure a place in history by recording the first league double over Wrexham for more than 50 years.

It was way back in 1960-61 when Chester, managed by Stan Pearson, last celebrated two league wins over Wrexham in the same season.

Scottish forward Walter Kelly gave the Blues a 1-0 win in front of 9,570 supporters at Sealand Road in the October and Ron Davies silenced the Racecourse with both goals in a 2-1 win in the February.

Chester’s squad on Saturday (1pm) will not have any previous experience of playing in a cross-border derby at Wrexham as Michael Kay, the only player still with the club to feature in the 2-0 win at the Racecourse last term, misses out through suspension.

Despite that, first team coach McCarthy thinks he and manager Steve Burr have been involved with enough derbies to know what will be required, and reckons the chance to write history is a huge incentive.

“It’s been a long time since the club has done the double over Wrexham and these players can make their own little bit of history which is always going to be there,” McCarthy said.

“The gaffer and I have got a lot of experience of derbies between us and we understand the fans will expect a certain level of performance.

“Fans want a tempo, an attitude and a work-rate, and the supporters want to see the players wearing the shirt like they would wear the shirt.

“There’s a different intensity so you have to be up for the battle, but at the same time it’s important to keep your discipline because losing that can kill your chances.

“These can be strange games and strange things always happen, and it’s important how you respond to that and deal with that, and that’s something we’ll work on.

“We probably go there as slight underdogs because Wrexham, at the moment, have got a bigger budget but I think the two teams are quite closely matched and it should be a great game of football.”

Chester are still working on a deal to bring Oliver McBurnie back to the club on loan from Bradford City and are hopeful Brad Abbott will shake off a thigh problem.

McCarthy said: “We’ve prepared two or three different teams depending on what happens with Oli and Brad.

“We’ve looked at Wrexham this week, we’ve trained well and we’re confident in our game-plan.”