Twelve months into his tenure, Steve Burr feels satisfied with his work yet his ambitious and competitive nature means the Chester manager sees plenty of room for improvement.

“I’ve got to be pleased because if you look at it we’re in a better position than when I arrived,” said Burr.

“We’ve had a good run in the FA Cup, which financially helps any club at our level so that’s pleasing and I’ve been pleased with how we’ve managed to play but I just get frustrated when that doesn’t happen on a regular basis.

“In football, you are remembered for your last game and for me our last game was poor.

“It reminded me a little bit perhaps of how we were towards the back end of last season when we were trying to change things round but overall with where we are as a club and what we are working with I’ve got to be pleased but I get down in myself with the poor performances like the last couple”

Burr, who turned 55 this week, arrived on January 18 last year as the replacement for Neil Young and signed a short-term deal tasked with keeping a team heading for relegation in the Conference Premier.

He was within four minutes of achieving that but Charlie Sheringham’s equaliser for Salisbury City and a late Michael Rankine winner for Hereford United meant the Blues finished in the bottom four.

However that was not the end of the matter and after six weeks of conjecture and chaos, Chester were reprieved from relegation.

Burr, whose recruitment plans had been placed on hold, had already committed his future to the club, signing a two-year contract, and then began rebuilding.

The current season could not have started much worse but performances soon improved and the Blues begin 2015 closer to the play-offs than the relegation places.

“I said in the summer that I wanted to improve on last year because I didn’t want to find us in that position again and the signs have been good,” said Burr.

“If you look at the start of the season, we had a relegation start then we had a period where we had a run that was promotion form with the points we picked up and then over Christmas we’ve dropped down to that level of thinking where’s our next win coming from.

“I’ve got to tell myself that when we played against Gateshead and Bristol Rovers, when we’ve scored four goals and won at Dartford, the FA Cup games at Southend and Barnsley, they were all terrific performances so I don’t want to be too down.

“I also have to say to myself with what we are working with compared to a lot of clubs we’re restricted with what we can do.

“From my point of view, I don’t want to stand still. I look at all sorts of things during the season and we’ve had a situation where to get to that next level for whatever reason there’s a barrier there and we’ve not been able to push into the top half. We’ve had great opportunities and if you like we’ve fallen at the last hurdle.

“I’m looking to bring players in but the lads who are here should be saying I’m going to show the gaffer he doesn’t need to bring anybody in.

“The lads here haven’t become bad players overnight but I’m always looking to try and improve and I’m so determined to do well here because this club can really take off if we get things right on the park.”