Jon McCarthy is resolute in his belief that Chester FC can climb the table and put together a consistent run of performances and results.

It has been a up-and-down campaign for the Blues thus far with displays ranging from the excellent to the abysmal, and that unpredictability has frustrated the management team and supporters.

Chester welcome Lincoln City on Saturday (3pm) and assistant boss McCarthy expects a stern test from the Imps, but maintains it as a game the hosts can win if on song.

The ex-Northern Ireland winger said: "The Wrexham win was an outstanding performance and that was only a week ago so people can clearly see there's not a lot wrong.

"There are reasons. We lost Ross Hannah and Craig Hobson for three or four games in a spell which affects us. Luke George, who's a key player, has been out. We've had a couple of players playing with injuries.

"That's not excuses and we knew exactly what we had when we came into the season. We knew we were going with a smaller squad but of a better quality and we knew this could and would happen to us at some point.

"These are the facts and it's not us whinging or making excuses. We expected a little bit more at Barrow but they were better than us and that was frustrating after the Wrexham game.

"I think it's quite a few different factors but I'm convinced it will all come together at some point and we'll put that three or four game run together.

"The base compared to where we have been before is better. The foundations are better and when it happens I think you'll see that, I really do believe that."

Second season syndrome kicking in?

At the start of the season, the Blues looked assured at the back but manager Steve Burr was unhappy at the lack of goals at the other end.

In recent weeks his team have started to fire in attack but have conceded 10 goals in four games.

McCarthy said:" You can go all one way or all the other way, but ideally we're looking to score goals and hardly concede any.

"It's probably the level we're at. We didn't score many at the start but we kept them out. We've changed things around a little bit and now we're scoring some goals but we're conceding some too.

"We have had individual mistakes from players we weren't expecting and we have had a little bit of second season syndrome from players who did really well for us last year but we believe at some point that all comes together.

"It's frustrating it hasn't gone bang after the start we had but it's not completely unexpected. These are things we expected during the season, it just so happens to have happened now."

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