CARL Macauley is rallying his Vauxhall Motors players for their most challenging week of the season so far.

The Motormen, fresh from defeating play-off chasing Oxford City on Saturday, make the trip to third-placed Guiseley this Saturday (3pm) before welcoming local rivals Chester FC to Rivacre Park next Tuesday (7.45pm).

Neil Young’s high-flying side are currently second in the table and could even be top by the time they face their Ellesmere Port rivals next week, if results go their way.

Motors boss Macauley said: “It’s a tough week, that’s for sure – playing two teams in the play-off zone back to back.

“We’ve got a couple of suspensions coming up and we only carry a small squad, so that makes it more difficult.

“We can’t worry about other teams. We just worry about ourselves and we’re on a good run at the moment.”

Macauley’s defensive resources will be stretched as Leon Clowes and Andy Nicholas must serve bans for the red cards they received at Histon last week. Nicholas will return for the Chester game, but Clowes misses both.

By contrast, Chester boss Young has a larger squad to select from and has not been afraid to rotate his starting line-up this season.

Macauley said: “Everyone knows Neil’s got a healthy budget but he’s been doing really well with it.

“It’ll be a big, tough test for us. We’ve watched Chester a few times and they’ve put out different sides each time, so that’s thrown us a bit.”

Vauxhall can expect a four-figure attendance at Rivacre Park next Tuesday, as hundreds of travelling Chester fans will make the short trip to Ellesmere Port.

Only 236 fans watched Motors beat play-off chasers Oxford City 2-1 at Rivacre on Saturday, but the crowd will be five or six times bigger than that next week.

It will be the first time the two clubs have met in a competitive first team fixture.

The reborn Blues – now under the ownership of the club’s fans – are making their way back up the leagues following the demise of Chester City in 2010.

Macauley said: “It’ll be like a home game for Chester. There should be a good atmosphere and it will be nice to see a big crowd in Rivacre Park. I think it’ll bring the best out of our lads.

“It’s a massive week for us we’ll just go out and get on with it. We beat the side who are fourth in the league on Saturday so we know we can compete with the top sides.”