Marcus Bignot has admitted he considered his future as Chester FC manager but believes the arrival of Neil Young has given them a fighting chance.

Marooned near the foot of the National League table, forced to lose his support staff and a number of senior first team players and relying on volunteers to patch up his match day squad, this has been the most testing of seasons for the Chester manager.

Mismanagement at the top has left the Blues in crisis. Over £95,000 was raised by fans after the revelations of the financial crisis at the end of January, and that figure will help Chester get to the end of the season at least.

But what happens next?

Liabilities well in excess of the £100,000 quoted at last week's City Fans United members meeting mean that it will be a season of real struggle again next year, one that will likely be played out in the National League North given Chester's perilous league position.

With no support staff around him after the departure of Dave Felgate, Bignot was allowed to bring in a member of staff. The man he angled for was Chester legend and three-time championship winner with the Blues - Neil Young.

Young has returned to the club in an advisory capacity in the short-term, and he is someone who Bignot wants to work with longer term at the football club if he can.

“I am not a quitter, I am a fighter - but I’m not stupid," said Bignot.

“I have considered my future in terms of resigning. Clearly this wasn’t the job I applied for and I am just managing consequences of decisions made prior to me and while I have been here. I want to make decisions and I want to be judged on the decisions I make. As a manager I make no decisions as I am constantly firefighting.

“I was brought in to get results and now it is about saving the football club. I understand that, I am a clubman and have been there before and built a club - the club is bigger than Marcus Bignot.

“I have considered my future but I know what this club needs and what is required and if Neil Young never come into the building I probably would have walked away because it would have been an impossible task. The board have gone on record, my hands are tied, my legs are tied and I am pushing water up a hill.

“Why am I still here? The club is on its knees and me and Neil have been in this situation before and have got the experience. We believe that with the right decisions made we can get this club off its knees. If it doesn’t want to or it can’t then at least we tried. We don’t want to see this club go to the wall.

“I want to get back where I came from which is a Football League manager. I am sure some fans, as Chester, will harbour those dreams of getting back there.

“Whichever way you look we have got people who have been there, done it and got the t-shirt.

“I haven’t given up on staying up. On the business side it would probably be the worst thing for this club - on the business side. On the football front it would be the best thing to happen to this football club and the detail and meat on the bone to that people will understand. We have a situation where the football side and business side are not running alongside each other and you get a jacknife situation and a car crash - and it has become a car crash."

Bignot says the job he has found himself in is not the one he applied for after Jon McCarthy's sacking back in September. But it is one he is determined to turn round and make a success of.

He said: "I applied for a job which was clearly not the job I applied for. As time has gone on I have been managing the consequences of decisions made and that has gone from a weekly basis to a daily basis. They are decisions that aren’t ours and it takes you away from the job you have been brought in to do.

“We have lost a CEO, and people will have their own opinions on that, but from a staff and player point of view he was a support to us. I have lost an assistant manager, a goalkeeping coach, a player coach and we are left with no management staff. We have got to a point where I have no support staff around me and half a team who are playing for nothing. I came into the building and there was Kathryn (Hopwood, sports therapist) and now there is only Kathryn, Jimmy (Soul) and Chris Piercy left and they are on the operational side.

“I wanted to address that for the here and now (with Young) but also moving forward in terms of what is required for this football club. We will get through the here and now but what does this club look like moving forward?"