NEIL YOUNG praised his hat-trick hero after seeing the Blues carve a nine point lead at the top of the Conference North league table.
The Blues boss was pleased to see on loan Rochdale striker Craig Curran making an impact after being introduced as a second half substitute in Chester's 4-1 home victory against Bishops Stortford.
Young revealed that Chester are now hoping to extend Curran's loan with the Blues by another month after his initial deal elapsed after Saturday's match.
“We have already spoken to Rochdale and to Craig Curran, and Craig wants to stay at Chester,” Young said. “Rochdale have told us that we can extend his loan spell at Chester for another month and it is now up to our board to authorise the extension.
“Craig has been fantastic all week in the lead up to Saturday's match and he has been fantastic since he has been at Chester. He is a lad who is a professional at a professional club and everyone can see why, not just in his ability, but the way he is around the place.
“He asked Gary Powell whether he would go out with him at half-time on Saturday to work on some finishing. Unfortunately, Craig isn't getting as much football as he would like at Rochdale, but thankfully for us we've got him here and he proved again what a quality player he is.”
Young, who explained that Tony Gray was left out of the side for tactical reasons and that Scott Brown was nursing a knee injury in the hope of being fit for Wednesday's home match against Harrogate, admitted his team produced a poor opening half performance against a well drilled Bishops Stortford side who caused Chester a few problems until he made a few changes.
He added: “It was a convincing win for us in the end, but up until half-time I didn't think we played well and I thought we were quite poor to be honest.
“All credit to Bishops Stortford because they put a lot of effort into the first half. They set up well with one of their lads playing in front of the back four who was picking up most of the pieces.
“I didn't think we were at the races and I thought we were lucky to reach half-time without being behind because Bishops Stortford had put us under a lot of pressure and John Danby made a great save.
“I was thinking of making a few substitutions at half time, but I then decided to give the lads another eight or so minutes to see if they could get themselves out of it. But they couldn't.
“Sometimes football pans out like that and I've already gone on record as saying that no two games are the same and that was proved.
“I think we have to give great credit to the opposition because they set up well, tried to hit us on the break, and played to their strengths by trying to hit their big lad up top and then go and play off him. But once we changed the system and the personnel a little bit I thought we were playing a different level of football than we had been used to earlier in the match.
“The speed, the tempo and managing to getting on the ball and pass and move it made a difference. The enthusiasm and ability of Craig Curran and the ability of Marc Williams to drop in and get on the ball made a real difference and got us the three points in the end.”