Chester FC 2 Maidenhead United 0
Kingsley James says that Chester FC have now set a standard to hold themselves against after their 2-0 success over Maidenhead United on Saturday.
In new manager Marcus Bignot’s first game in charge of the Blues they ended a winless home record of 15 games that dated back to December 2016 and gave cause for some optimism among the long-suffering home fans as Ryan Astles and Ross Hannah netted in each half in a game that Chester dominated from start to finish.
The performance was the best of 2017 so far for the Blues and they were unfortunate not to have added to the scoreline, with James himself seeing a shot cleared off the line in the first half.
But while the players enjoyed Saturday’s success James knows that they now have to replicate that high standard week in, week out.
“We thoroughly deserved it, we controlled the game from start to finish and won the second balls and set a really high standard,” said the Chester midfielder, impressive against the Magpies.
“The session that we had (before Maidenhead), the gaffer put a lot of detail into it and we took all that on board and we showed it. We were brave in possession, at times we lost it but if that’s how we are going to play then there are going to be times when we lose it. It’s about playing in the right areas and there were a lot of positives.”
Despite the three points Chester still sit in the National League relegation zone, fourth from bottom.
The poor start to the season saw Jon McCarthy pay the price and he was sacked as Blues boss three weeks ago.
But James says that the workrate of the Blues squad hasn’t been the issue on the pitch and is confident that they now have a platform on which to build.
Said James: “Workrate is the minimum. We can always work as hard as we possibly can, but I don’t think workrate has been the problem. We have worked really hard and it’s just that little bit of nous and working hard in the right areas. As a group you can see we have worked hard, but if you work hard with a structure then that is what happens.
“We have just got to implement what we have done there (against Maidenhead) in every game, if we do that then we’ll have a chance against anybody in this league. It was a really good platform to build on.
“It was very enjoyable and I’m looking forward to kicking on and moving up that table.”
